The Jacques Thibaud String Trio Enters a Still-Forming Alliance

Normally, the Jacques Thibaud String Trio plays on its own, with no printed music as a safety net. Yet for most of their Music Guild concert at Cal State Northridge on Monday night, the Thibauds had some outside help from former Heifetz piano accompanist Ayke Agus, Los Angeles Philharmonic co-principal bassist Christopher Hanulik--and, yes, a set of scores.

It was an uneasy alliance at times on opening night, at least. In the first movement of Mozart’s Piano Quartet in E-flat, K. 493, Agus’ piano seemed like a brittle, if gently focused outsider alongside the warm, homogenous, Central European blend of Thibaud strings. But Agus sensitively adapted her playing to the Thibaud manner in the slow movement, and things dovetailed smoothly from there.

L.A. chamber music fans have been placed on a seafood diet lately--this was the third group to program Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet in a bit over two weeks--and this time, the players had differing ideas about the recipe. While Hanulik laid down a richly resounding bass part, Agus’ phrasing was sometimes at odds with that of the Thibauds, and there was hardly any emphasis on the fourth and fifth movements’ folk-like rhythms. Midway through the Finale, the quintet played a cadence with such force and conclusive body language that the audience burst into loud applause, thinking the piece was over.

On their own, the Thibauds offered a highly polished pair of Adagios and Fugues from Mozart’s K. 404a, in which the composer paired his adagios somewhat incongruously with transcriptions of fugues by W.F. and J.S. Bach.

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* This program repeats tonight at 8, Wilshire-Ebell Theatre, 4401 W. 8th St. $7-$24. (310) 552-3030.