THIBAUD TRIO

Of bows and arrows

The Jacques Thibaud String Trio
exercise musical acrobatics that leaves
them traipsing a lively tightrope

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By Scott Vogel
svogel@starbulletin.com

Playing from memory, as the Jacques Thibaud String Trio does, offers many advantages. In the event of a fight, for example, the musicians can leap forward and tackle each other without fear of impaling themselves on a music stand. No small comfort, that.

But wait. Fights? In the elegant, refined and purportedly nonpugilistic land of classical music?

"There is a lot of argument over interpretation in our group," admitted Burkhard Maiss, the trio's violinist, in an e-mail from Berlin. "Everybody talks simultaneously. We are shouting at each other. But nobody has been injured so far.

THIBAUD TRIO The Jacques Thibaud String Trio performs tomorrow at Orvis Auditorium.

"So it is an excellent relationship."

Hmm. Oprah's Dr. Phil might not concur with Maiss' characterization, but then what does he know about the world of Schubert, Mozart and Bach? In fact, reliable emissaries report that however they arrive at brilliance, however rocky the path, the Thibaud trio does indeed arrive at the epiphanic spot, their efforts having been lauded in the past by contest judges in Weimar, Bonn and Essen. Local, self-styled judges can form their own opinions tomorrow evening when the trio makes its Honolulu debut at Orvis Auditorium in a concert jointly sponsored by the University of Hawaii and the Honolulu Chamber Music Series.

"In our opinion, it is a more lively style of music-making," wrote Maiss, providing another reason for his trio's unusual decision to play all its pieces from memory. "You can communicate more easily and you are more free to react to each other."

The Jacques Thibaud String Trio When: 8 p.m. tomorrow Where: Orvis Auditorium, University of Hawaii at Manoa Cost: $24 adults; $15 students Call: 956-6878

You are also free to suffer the kind of catastrophic memory slips that leave your two confreres staring at you in disbelief. And while the Thibaud trio has so far been lucky -- "We never had a real bad accident on stage, but maybe there is a chance in Honolulu ..." -- Maiss is ever mindful of the warnings of his instructors at the Berlin School of Art, where the ensemble was first hatched in 1994. "One teacher thought we were crazy and told us after a lesson where we played by heart, 'One day you will have an accident. Remember me, you will.'"

Maiss met Philip Douvier, Thibaud's violist, 16 years ago in high school; they played in the same music class. The duo met cellist Uwe Hirth-Schmidt at the Berlin School where the nascent group spent a few years "trying to convince our teachers that we really could make a living playing string trio." Discovering that they shared a love of musical acrobatics (i.e., the high-wire act of playing without sheet music) the guys decided to name their ensemble after Jacques Thibaud, one of chamber music's stars of the last century, another musician whose career was driven by passion.

"His playing was never academic or mechanical, but on the other hand full of enthusiasm and charming," said Maiss of the violinist, who died in a plane crash in 1953 while on the way to a concert in Indonesia at age 73. "He spent a lot of time playing chamber music with his friends just for fun. We would never try to copy his style of playing, but this joy of playing we want to preserve."

That and a friendship that has grown and evolved as the trio approaches a decade of professional association. Although both Maiss and Douvier are now married with children ("Uwe is available ... I guess"), the trio continues to rehearse daily in one of their homes, except during what Maiss terms "trio holidays," when the men go their separate ways for rest and relaxation.

How else might they regain the necessary strength for future rehearsal-time battles?

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