MUSIC REVIEWS : COLEMAN CONCERTS OPEN WITH SUK TRIO

The new season of Coleman Concerts at Beckman Auditorium, Caltech, opened on Sunday afternoon with some old friends, the Suk Trio, playing two of the grandest--and most familiar--chamber works in the Romantic repertory: the Schubert Trio in E-flat, D. 929, and Dvorak’s “Dumky” Trio, Opus 90.

In spite of countless encounters with the Schubert by these distinguished Czech artists--pianist Josef Hala, violinist Josef Suk and cellist Josef Chuchro--routine didn’t figure in the results on this occasion. Schubert’s arching melodies were hurled out passionately and precisely, with an altogether delectable tension created by the contrast between the violinist’s sweetly piercing, tightly vibratoed tone and the rough-hewn, less projected sounds produced by the cellist.

Schubert’s triumph here is the dark opening theme of the slow movement, dirgelike piano chords underlining the C-minor lament of the cello, and its startling return, like clouds suddenly obscuring the sun, during the ebullient climax of what one expects to be the coda of the finale. The Suk Trio really made a grand moment of this return by means of the subtlest lightening of tone and some exquisite dynamic contrasts, before bringing back the finale’s major-key theme in all its brilliant glory.

A daring, altogether convincing interpretation.

The folksy Dvorak “Dumky,” has been heard several times too often hereabouts during the past three or four seasons. Why not the composer’s equally intense and lyrical F-minor Trio, Opus 65, for a change? Nonetheless, this performance glowed with the commitment and technical expertise lavished on it by these masterful veterans.