Music Reviews : Falla Trio in Recital at Caltech

Appearing on the first evening of a five-day, 15-concert, midsummer guitar festival in Pasadena, the Falla Trio opted for understatement in the first half of its potpourri recital in Ramo Auditorium at Caltech.

The Southern California-based guitar ensemble lit more fires after intermission, however, first in a handsome and grateful suite from Stravinsky’s “Pulcinella,” then in a quarter-hour jazz set.

Here, the three players--Terry Graves, Dusan Bogdanovic and Kenton Youngstrom--proved resourceful virtuosos as well as versatile and musicianly performers.

In Bogdanovic’s clever and faceted transcription of excerpts from Stravinsky’s “re-composition” of pieces by Pergolesi, all three soloists shone; moreover, their ensemble work functioned on a high level of accomplishment. Balances--which, elsewhere in this evening, could falter--emerged steady and resonant; rhythms held their course; inner voices blended tellingly with principal activity.

Similarly, the trio’s playing of pieces by Thelonious Monk, Bogdanovic and Chick Corea, revealed not only--as in their earlier performances of music by Boyce, Soler and Falla--clear-cut stylishness but an easy flow of rhetoric and articulation as well.

There was more reserve, and lower-temperature climaxes, in the group’s playing of Graves’ arrangement of Boyce’s Symphony No. 1, Padre Soler’s Fandango in D minor and a suite of four excerpts from Falla’s “Sombrero de Tres Picos.” The players did not lack for energy, but maintained a lower profile of dynamics than later in the program.

Still, there was much to admire, both in the ups and downs of the famous and irresistible Soler piece--not exactly danceable, as some would say it ought to be--and in the reveries/tantrums of Falla’s wondrous score: a clear sense of musical direction, felicitous ensemble values, structural integrity.

The festival continues through Saturday night, with performances scheduled at noon, 5 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. daily, all in Ramo Auditorium.