MUSIC REVIEW : L.A. Violist Bolsters N.Y. Piano Trio

Special things happened Monday night when the touring Guild Piano Trio of Stony Brook, N.Y., added violist Evan N. Wilson of the Los Angeles Philharmonic to its ensemble and offered Brahms’ Piano Quartet, Opus 25, as the finale to its appearance in the finally repaired Gerald R. Daniel Recital Hall at Cal State Long Beach.

Immediately, the trio members--violinist Janet Orenstein, cellist Brooks Whitehouse, pianist Patricia Tao--came to life, began to sound more resonant tones than they had, pre-intermission, and became measurably more alert to the music around them. The resulting performance may not have been definitive, but it certainly proved vigorous and warm-blooded.

An educated guess: Violist Wilson had become the catalyst for some admirably touching, as well as virtuosic, Brahms playing in a musical marathon that can be run only by equals. His full-toned, open-hearted performance set a standard the others were able to follow.

The earlier part of the Music Guild-sponsored evening had been mostly loud and heartless. The hard-working trio--which played in Seattle on Sunday, was scheduled in Woodland Hills Tuesday, plays with Wilson at the Wilshire-Ebell tonight and moves on to La Jolla for the weekend--produced efficient performances of both Beethoven’s “Ghost” Trio and Shostakovich’s Trio in E minor, but failed to indicate the breadth of emotions contained in these familiar works.

Their note-spinning became successful, their communicative skills largely inoperative. And the palette of sound and dynamics that Brahms and Evan Wilson later brought out of them remained unused.

Sidelight: Tao played on a tough new Steinway in the handsomely refurbished hall (its roof collapsed in July, 1990--the building reopened just six weeks ago); tonight at the Ebell, she will have a Bosendorfer. Who said going on the road was easy?