New Pacific Trio debuts in a delightful program of Zwilich, Beethoven and Café music

By Truman C. Wang
September 19, 2004

Last Sunday at LACMA’s Bing Theater, we heard the New Pacific Trio, an amiable group of music professors from University of the Pacific at Stockton.  Their playing, by turns intense and playful, sounded anything but academic.  Even in the intricate thematic weavings of Ellen Taaffe Zwilich’s Piano Trio, the playing was fresh and absorbing enough to hold the listener’s attention for fifteen minutes of post-Bartokian sound world.

The musicians threw themselves with equal fervor into the early Romanticism of Beethoven’s D-Major Trio. This was an immensely enjoyable account – the velvet richness of Nina Flyer’s cello, the silken beauty of Linda Wang’s 1767 Guadagnini violin, and the easy elegance of Sonia Leong’s piano.  In the spectral slow movement, the weight and intensity of the strings were palpable against the agitated keyboard tremolando.  Clearly, these ladies possess both glamour and brains abound.

The ragtime-inspired Café Music by Paul Schoenfield made for an exciting filler in the hour-long program.  The trio of ladies literally kicked up their heels and had great fun with the music.  It marked an exhilarating end for the concert, and a memorable L.A. debut for the New Pacific Trio. 

The concert was broadcast live on KMozart, 105.1FM Los Angeles, and 1510AM San Francisco.  For information and engagement dates of the New Pacific Trio, go to http://www.pacific.edu/conservatory/npt.html

 

Truman C. Wang is editor-in-chief of Classical Voice, whose articles have appeared in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, the Pasadena Star-News and other Southern California publications.

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