Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples
NZ Trio, InterFusions
Auckland Concert Chamber
October 18
Reviewed by John Daly-Peoples
It is hard to imagine the shock, surprise or elation of audiences in the past confronted by new music. We know of the riot which happened on the first night of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring and the bafflement on encountering John Cage’s 4”33” of silence. But there have been other moments during the classical periods with composers, shocking audiences with music which we now see as mainstream. Several of the works of Beethoven shocked audiences but led to major shifts of perception with his innovative symphonies and chamber works.
NZ Trio in their latest concert “Interfusions” recreated one of those moments playing Beethoven’s Piano Trio in C Minor, a work which his teacher Joseph Haydn had advised against publishing. Compared with the traditional trios of Haydn and Mozart this broke with the traditional model, changing the nature of the form for ever.
With this work he added a movement to the normal three movement form and gave the strings, notably the cello, a more independent role.
The work opened in an ominous mood which changed after few bars with a more hopeful second theme. Throughout the work the instruments each had an opportunity for a virtuoso display and the various motifs were passed between the instruments building tension and moods swing from they were able to create emotion al moods from the soothing through to the feverish and enigmatic. The tumultuous to the carefree. There was little of the nuanced style of a Haydn trio with more drama and emotional, qualities that the three players interpreted with vigour.
While cellist Ashley Brown played much of the time with a precise earnestness he occasionally lapsed into a more languorous style and violinist Amalia Hall played with a breath-taking savagery.
Pianist Somi Kim who provided the solid base for the more flamboyant strings had some passages where she displayed dexterous skills with some delightful trills.
Also on the programme was Ravel’s Piano Trio in A minor, one of the great examples of modern of piano trios. Finished at the outbreak of World War I there are premonitions of the coming war the harsh, often discordant music in the latter part of the work.
It is a work of enormous strength and the four movements are elaborately constructed with musical themes drawn from a variety of sources -Basque folk music Malaysian and nineteenth century classical.
It is technically demanding of the players with each of the instrument requiring virtuoso displays. All three gave it a passionate and thoroughly convincing performance, creating emotional moods from the soothing through to the feverish and enigmatic. At times the players gave it a rich orchestral sound as they played multiple, overlapping themes and Somi Kim’s initial playing which was whimsical and dreamy then flowed into some harsh, but never uncontrolled sounds.
There were three shorter works on the programme as well – Christos Hatzis’ Constantinople: Old Photographs, Dinuk Wijeratne’s Love Triangle and Salina Fisher’s Kintsugi
Hatzis’ work which draws on his Greek heritage is filled with music which touches on remembering and romancing deriving its sounds from gospel, Sufi and mediaeval chants, along with Greek folksong. The work opened with Somi Kim playing an achingly lovely passage, filled with longing which gradually morphed, along with the other instruments into a Piazzolla style with many tango rhythms such that the work could more aptly be titled “Buenos Aires”.
Parts of the work became quite frenzied which then turned into slow languid passages before returning to more passionate tangos where Hall and Brown engaged in a ferocious bowing competition. Throughout there was a sense of photographic images being examined some blurred, some ripped, some black and white, some filled with colour as well as ancient sepia toned ones
Playing the Wijeratne’s work derived from the melodies of the Middle East and the rhythms of classical Indian music the trio produced some plaintive Middle eastern sounds with Ashley Brown making his cello sound like an oud
The trio also played a new commission from Salina Fisher. The innovative work Kintsugi, relates to the ancient Japanese art of repairing broken pottery and dusting the new work with gold. The music focussed on the gaps and fragments highlighting the fragility of the process as the piece was slowly assembled. While the violin and cello seemed to describe the colours, textures and contours of the bowl or vase the the piano picked out the seams of the material bonding the broken shards and the shimmering gold.
While describing the physical changes in the pottery the work with its delicate, brittle sounds acted as a metaphor for the ability of humans to mend broken bodies and minds.
New Zealand Arts Review 