Virtuosos, from Philly to L.A. Phil

When three of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s most familiar faces -- principal concertmaster Martin Chalifour, principal cellist Peter Stumpf and pianist Joanne Pearce Martin -- make their debut as the Los Angeles Philharmonic Piano Trio tonight at the Hollywood Bowl, they will also be participating in the classical-music equivalent of a reunion concert. Sort of.

Though Chalifour, Stumpf and Pearce Martin have never performed publicly as a trio, their association goes back more than 20 years, to when they were simultaneously enrolled at the Curtis Institute, the elite music school in Philadelphia.

There, Chalifour, Stumpf and Pearce Martin (then just Pearce) performed chamber music in various combinations, though never all together.

“I recall in particular learning for the first time the Beethoven cello sonatas with Peter, especially the C major,” Pearce Martin says. “I have fond memories of all that.”

Chalifour seconds those sentiments. “The ties that you form at Curtis are very strong, like a family,” he says. “There are barely enough players to form an orchestra, so you got to know each other quite well, even if you weren’t in the same social groups.”

The years after brought separation and little, if any, direct contact among the three until each landed at the Philharmonic. Chalifour was the first to join the orchestra, in September 1995, but Pearce Martin was the first to move to Southern California, in the late 1980s.

“I knew that Joanne had ended up here, and I was quick to ask her to accompany me when I auditioned for the concertmaster’s job,” the violinist recalls.

Pearce Martin joined the orchestra in the summer of 2001 and Stumpf in September 2002. Since then the three have played together regularly in concerts and occasionally in the Philharmonic’s chamber music and Green Umbrella series, but even then, they never performed works for just their three instruments.

It was Chalifour who first suggested the idea of a piano trio. He had formed one during his years with the Cleveland Orchestra in the mid-1990s. “In the back of my head, I got the idea when Joanne and then Peter joined the Philharmonic,” he says.

But it wasn’t until last October that he acted on the notion, first meeting with and then writing to Philharmonic President Deborah Borda. She gave her consent the following month.

Their selection tonight, Beethoven’s Triple Concerto -- known more formally as the Concerto for Piano, Violin, Cello and Orchestra in C, Opus 56 -- is not, of course, a composition for just three instruments. Backing them will be the Philharmonic conducted by Miguel Harth-Bedoya. But the work requires its three soloists to work as a team, combining what could be egoistic musical flights into a model of musical cooperation.

“We have to be of one mind in order to play it successfully,” Stumpf says. “It’s like playing chamber music and a concerto at the same time.”

Pearce Martin calls Beethoven’s writing in the piece “ingenious.” It is “a solo concerto for three instruments, but only fleetingly,” she says. “Mostly, all three play together. If you isolated just your part, it wouldn’t sound right, like a third of a person. But together, you’re a complete person.”

The division of solo labor has made practicing the concerto something of a challenge, though all three players worked on their parts long before their first rehearsal, in the living room of Pearce Martin’s house in the Hollywood Hills a week ago. (They were scheduled to rehearse with the orchestra just once, earlier today.)

They also say that the pressures of partnership in a concerto have taken some getting used to.

“That’s something that we’re working on, coming to an agreement on how to present the material both individually and as a group,” says Stumpf of the trio’s attempts to create a cohesive interpretation. “You can’t just decide, ‘I want to do it this way, and that’s how it’s going to be.’ You have to come to a consensus on everything. Sometimes thematic material is shared, so you have to adjust what you might do independently. There are certain compromises you have to make.”

If the Triple Concerto seems an audacious choice for the trio’s initial public appearance -- the work’s first movement alone can run nearly 20 minutes -- hubris is not a factor. The group did not intend to begin life this way.

“We kept having these various plans, and they all got canceled,” Stumpf says. “We were going to do the Ottawa Festival, but Joanne couldn’t make that, and there was a house concert, but that didn’t work either, so we ended up doing nothing until now.”

For tonight’s debut, the Philharmonic at first billed the three principals individually. That may be because the ensemble’s status remains vague. The orchestra is not funding it -- as it does, say, the Philharmonic New Music Group. And in return for using the orchestra’s name, which carries cachet with concert presenters, Chalifour, Stumpf and Pearce Martin will be called on to perform occasionally at Philharmonic functions.

According to Chalifour, summer festivals will probably provide many of the trio’s future concert dates. “And we’ll certainly be part of the Philharmonic chamber music series.” He says that once the pressures of the Beethoven are past, the group will begin mapping out its future, which may include commissioning new music.

There’s also unfinished business in Philadelphia.

“It would nice for all three of us to go back to Curtis and play as the L.A. Philharmonic Trio.”

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Los Angeles Philharmonic

Where: Hollywood Bowl, 2301 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood

When: 8 tonight

Price: $1 to $92

Contact: (213) 480-3232 or www.hollywoodbowl.com