Three faculty members from the University of Alabama, in matching dark blue suits, bright red ties and spectacles, came to Merkin Hall earlier the same afternoon and played trios by Haydn, Schubert, Schumann and Leon Kirchner with a good, hearty uncomplicated vigor that one often wishes for in vain at chamber concerts hereabouts.

Bruce Murray (piano), Henry Rubin (violin) and John Boles (cello) perform as the Cadek Trio, named after the violinist Ottokar Cadek, who came to Alabama in 1950. It is an open secret to anyone who frequents debut recitals that university-based ensembles are often more spirited, less ''academic'' in the term's false negative connotation, than some on the middle-level full-time concert circuit.