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28 August 2011
Strong and Vital Playing from Trio
A trio from the New Zealand Chamber Soloists impressed with their strong, vital playing at the Concert Chamber on Saturday night.
Violinist Lara Hall, cellist James Tennant and pianist Katherine Austin, one of our best ensembles, are renowned for their responsiveness to each other, and their projection of both the inner meaning of the music and a sheer enjoyment in it.
All these qualities stood out for Schubert’s monumental Piano Trio No.2, and their vivacity and impetus for such a demanding work was remarkable, although they did seem to fade a bit at the end.
‘At Water’s Birth’ is a modern and striking work, one which its New Zealand composer Eve de Castro-Robinson calls ‘meditative and ritualistic,’ and it got an unusually touching performance.
Its sounds included vocalizing by the players and unusual string and keyboard effects, and all these created fascinating images of water which had plenty of appeal to the willing ear.
The ensemble made an unequivocal success, too, of Brahms’s Piano Trio in B Major. They injected plenty of good things into it, such as Brahmsian warmth and lilt, and everything came together nicely.
An extract from the Armenian composer Arno Babajanian’s delightful but strangely neglected Trio made a stunning encore.
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