Ahn Trio: A Lively but Uneven Outing

Paul Schoenfield’s 4-month-old “Four Music Videos” proved an exciting, sometimes riveting experience at the close of the Ahn Trio’s latest local appearance Sunday afternoon in Schoenberg Hall at UCLA. It’s not a great piece (it will be more interesting when the promised visual portion is added), but it is lively, attractive and hip, just like the Ahn sisters themselves.

Pianist Lucia, violinist Angella and cellist Maria were born in Korea and trained at the Juilliard School in New York. Their musical achievement, individually and as an ensemble, is remarkable, as is their stylish image. One can also admire their commitment to living and forward-looking composers.

Still, their commitment to their style sometimes takes them over the top. As heard Sunday, their raucous, usually unmodulated playing was appropriate to Schoenfield’s derivative yet pleasing suite, and the energy the three players gave it could be contagious. But in the service of Shostakovich’s impassioned, multifaceted E-minor Trio, their playing was neither persuasive nor enlightening.

Written for the trio and commissioned by Hancher Auditorium and the University of Iowa, “Four Music Videos” is a complex, driving work combining pop and classical styles with abundant craft. It disappoints only when it runs out of imagination--as in the conventional and lengthy slow movement, “Film Score.” Its brightness is undeniable, however.

At the beginning of the program, Leonard Bernstein’s early Piano Trio--written when he was a really callow 19--would certainly embarrass the composer, were he around to hear it. This piece of juvenilia--it ends with a loud, downward glissando on the piano--is not worth reviving.