Music Reviews : Lukewarm Outing by Amadeus Group

The admired Amadeus Trio played its first engagement at Ambassador Auditorium Monday night after conquering smaller chamber-music venues in this area several years ago.

This time, the ensemble of young American musicians--pianist James Barbagallo, cellist Rafael Figueroa and violinist Timothy Baker--did not repeat the strong impressions of those previous visits. Indeed, the trio, with no ties of any kind to the late, lamented British ensembles carrying the Amadeus name, played sensibly, with easy virtuosity but also with great blandness.

A sizable crowd attended the event and certainly set up a possible big success for the ensemble. But, in major works by Beethoven, Shostakovich and Dvorak, such success eluded the players, except for mechanical reliability and the uneventful leaping of technical hurdles.

Perhaps these three, together now for six seasons, have reached a point of no-growth. These performances moved along comprehensibly, but lit no fires, illuminated few crannies. All the surfaces emerged clean, but urgency, spontaneity and emotional presence seldom materialized.

*

Shostakovich’s E-minor Trio, the centerpiece, proved least fresh, its mordancy reduced to routine. Most of the beauties in Dvorak’s F-minor Trio, Opus 65, were left unprojected.

In Beethoven’s “Kakadu” Variations, there was some wonderfully pearly pianism from Barbagallo, and handsome sounds from the strings, but little excitement. These are such good players--though there seems to be no leader among them--one hopes they were just having a down night.