Bauhinia Piano Trio City Hall Theatre March 2 Disregard the relative unfamiliarity of the composers and their music, or the fact they are from the 20th century. These three played so comfortably together that the full-house audience relished their joy in the music. Mary Wu Mei-loc (piano), Ho Hong-ying (violin) and Sarah Gaye (cello) speak three different languages - Cantonese, Putonghua and English, respectively - but each is a virtuoso. It showed in each of their five pieces. The composers are hardly household names here but for sheer enjoyment without complexities, John Ireland's Phantasie had the vigour and drive of an Elizabethan harpsichord fantasy. It was given an appropriately rip-roaring treatment. Christopher Keyes' Trio took more concentration (it included an instrument which sounded like a wind-chime). The theme motif sounded more oriental than Western, though Keyes lives in the United States. The minimal theme, more a series of intervals than melodies, was transformed by the Bauhinia Trio (plus the atmospheric chimes) into a texture which seemed like a sonorous dream. Composer Bright Sheng was last heard in Hong Kong played by Yo-Yo Ma. He's a very likeable composer, though he does not come close to the genius of fellow Chinese-American Tan Dun. His Four Movements demonstrated an alliance between Chinese and Western instruments. Each of the three 'colours' ranged from the dark to the eerily harmonic (the last movement seemed to have the remoteness of the Mongolian desert) to the savagely percussive. Not great music but unfailing ingenuity. Amy Beach's Trio was a strange fusion of Impressionism and 'Dvorakism'. And Malcolm Williamson's Piano Trio was stunningly beautiful. Written as a homage to composer Arthur Bliss, it was never sad or tormented. Reverential and jazzy, it was played with striking beauty by this talented group.