Edition: U.S. / Global

Review/Music; Verdehr Trio Promotes A Rare Configuration

Published: March 5, 1989

The premise of the Verdehr Trio's series at Merkin Concert Hall, according to their program notes Monday night, is that the violin-clarinet-piano combination - used by Bartok in his ''Contrasts'' but by few other composers - ''has the qualities inherent in a major chamber music medium.'' Through commissions, arrangements and recordings, the three players (Walter Verdehr, Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr and Gary Kirkpatrick) are endeavoring to establish it as such.

It's an odd claim to stake. The familiar chamber music units exist because a repertory was written for them at a time when composers associated those groupings with a musical genre and turned to them repeatedly. The trend in the 20th century has been toward the right of each individual composition to define its own instrumental forces; some composers never use the same ensemble twice. There is no reason why a violinist, a clarinetist and a pianist shouldn't give concerts together, but it is hard to see what musical need would be served by standardizing and establishing a new trio grouping for its own sake.

On the other hand, any enterprise that commissions worthwhile compositions justifies itself. Monday's program offered recent works by Karel Husa and Alan Hovhaness along with dances by Dvorak, Schumann's ''Fairy Tales'' and a trio by the early Viennese classicist Jan Vanhal.

The standout was clearly the Husa ''Sonata a Tre,'' with its sure sense of climax and dramatic variety in instrumental handling. Mr. Hovhaness's ''Lake Samish'' is made up of five short movements, contemplative, melancholy and vaguely melodious.

The older works were adapted in one way or another for the Verdehr combination. The Vanhal sounded like the work of a pleasant journeyman composer; it was very nicely ornamented by the players. In the Schumann, Mr. Verdehr played the original clarinet part on violin while Ms. Ludewig-Verdehr took the viola part on clarinet; it sounded all right this way, proving, if nothing else, that Schumann conceived the work more in terms of melodic identity than instrumental color. The playing throughout was attractive and assured.