MUSIC REVIEW : 3 RUSSIANS ARE MERGED IN BORODIN

LA JOLLA —  To describe the Borodin Trio, it is tempting to borrow a concept from the medieval theologians. The ensemble is really a single musical personality that happens to be manifested in three individual musicians.

In their Sherwood Hall concert Thursday night, the three Russian emigre musicians who make up the trio demonstrated their fluent and elegantly integrated technique to a sold-out house. Their generous programming--piano trios by Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Ravel--complemented their politely gregarious and meticulous approach to their task.

It was, however, an evening that featured minimum risk-taking. In Beethoven’s E-flat Trio, Op. 1, No. 1, the brash young composer’s exuberance was muted by their thorough, thoughtful interpretation. While pianist Luba Edlina experienced some unfortunate mechanical problems with the Steinway she was given to play, her role in the Beethoven trio was a bit too contained to give the work its wonted sparkle. Otherwise, her keyboard acumen was a model of strength and dexterity.

The slow second movement did allow violinist Rostislav Dubinsky to indulge in eloquent, shapely solo lines that are his calling card. Dubinsky, who founded the celebrated Borodin String Quartet in his student days at the Moscow Conservatory, now heads the chamber music program at Indiana University’s School of Music, where Edlina also teaches. In 1976, the two musicians fled to the West, along with Yuli Turovsky, the trio’s cellist.

Turovsky shone in Mendelssohn’s D Minor Trio, Op. 49, where he tempered his effusive solos with a slightly wistful air congruent with the composer’s mature style. Unsmiling in performance, Turovsky nevertheless projected a beautifully focused, singing tone that belied his austere countenance. Indeed, Mendelssohn’s idiom admirably suited this ensemble. It proved to be a showcase for their technical prowess, and their warm, blended timbre gave the piece a burnished glow.

But Ravel’s A Minor Trio proved to be the evening’s gem. The ensemble communicated not only the trio’s delicate, transparent textures and nervous arabesques, but they captured the composer’s existential trepidation as well. In the expansive third movement, Borodin infused Ravel’s mystical passacaglia with plaintive awe, and in the finale gave more than a hint of the movement’s vibrant, orchestral aspirations.

Borodin offered the scherzo from Mendelssohn’s C Minor Trio, Op. 66, as an encore.