Energetic piano trio lights up MCA

A few weeks ago when the Pamela Frank and Alexander Simionescu Duo were forced to cancel a classical music concert because of an arm injury Frank suffered, programmers at the Maine Center for the Arts in Orono had some quick work to do.

The job was to replace the beloved, trenchant husband-and-wife team known for effervescent and warm performances of chamber music. In the world of classical music, where venues are booked years ahead, two weeks’ notice – especially for top-seeded performers – is extraordinarily last minute.

Surprisingly, the Perlman/Nikkanen/Bailey Piano Trio had nothing on the calendar and agreed to show up Sunday at Minsky Recital Hall, where the group played a hard-driving, potent afternoon of chamber music.

The chic young players – pianist Navah Perlman, violinist Kurt Nikkanen and cellist Zuill Bailey – may have looked as if they just walked off the set of an indie movie about a rat pack of hip classical musicians. But they played Beethoven and Brahms as if they had spent all their recent years in a classical music workout room where they built up rock-hard artistic muscles to interpret the masters with skill, strength and guts.

Once you duly acknowledge the formidable talent of each of these musicians – and that’s the easy part – you have to note the seismic sound of the group. They play loud. They play fast. There’s bravura. And then they gently lay down a phrase that is so soft and tender it takes your breath away.

This was particularly true in the Beethoven Trio in B Flat Major, Opus 11. Written originally for clarinet and recorded by none other than Benny Goodman, the mood of the score is beautifully suited to a string arrangement. In a concert dominated by energetic and urgent rhythms, the easy lightness in the middle of this piece was like a lullaby.

Brahms’ Piano Trio in C Major, Opus 87, had the swagger of a large turbulent storm that demands fascination and respect, and Antonio Lotti’s Sonata in G Major moved with striking spunk. Through all these big sounds, the group still managed to show finesse and grace.

In its audacity and expressionism, the concert itself had a very modern sensibility. Yet the only actual modern piece was Arvo Part’s Mozart-Adagio for Violin, Cello and Piano. “It’s very obviously Mozart and very obviously not,” Bailey said by way of explaining that it was the composer’s memorial tribute to a deceased musician who played Mozart admirably. “It’s a very short piece, so don’t worry. It’s just long enough to make you wonder and to inspire.”

That was true enough. The piece pulsed around contemplative white spaces, but also was haunting and lyrical when the notes stepped forward. The music seemed to invite listeners into the silences to visit absence and, in doing so, created an experiential encounter with the music.

For a group that has been together only since 1998, the Perlman/Nikkanen/Bailey Piano Trio communicates as if its members were old souls – each with his or her own distinct voice and mission, and each with a desire to interpret a piece of music as a single bold message.