Trio showcases wistful interplay
Trio Jean Paul Presented by: Edmonton Chamber Music Society Where: Convocation Hall, the University of Alberta When: Friday night
There are a number of smaller-scale music societies in Edmonton that deserve to be wider known, and the Edmonton Chamber Music Society, even if they have their devoted — and largely elderly — followers, is one of them.
For they invite a variety of really excellent musicians from Canada and abroad, in the kind of music that would appeal to a wide classical music audience. Their concerts would also be ideal for parents to enjoy with children who have started to discover the marvels of such music — and younger faces were conspicuously absent in this concert.
On Friday the Society brought the distinguished German piano trio Trio Jean Paul to the University’s Convocation Hall. The Trio (named after a German poet) was founded in 1991, and has performed all over the world: their previous concert was last week at the famed Berlin Philharmonie.
They are noted first for their command of the central 19th-century repertoire, and second for their championing of new works for piano trio — later this year they will be premièring a new Triple Concerto by one of Germany’s finest composers, Wolfgang Rihm.
Here, though, they stuck to staples of the repertoire, Beethoven, Brahms, and Schubert, though with a twist in the Brahms.
It was clear from the opening phrases of Beethoven’s Piano Trio in E-flat Major, op. 1, no. 1, that this was going to be piano chamber music playing of the highest order.
It is an early work, first performed with Beethoven’s teacher Haydn in the audience, and pianist Eckart Heiligers made the University’s Steinway sound like an early Beethoven piano — no mean feat — and the matching of the piano’s bass to the cello was an object lesson in chamber music technique.
And this is the Trio Jean Paul’s forte — marvellously seamless handing over of musical line from instrument to instrument. Violinist Ulf Schneider has something of a “flat” style, often keeping dynamic range and tone absolutely consistent through a phrase, but the trio revelled in the fast and furious passages of the scherzo, where Beethoven (adding an extra movement to Haydn’s customary three) most looks to the future.
The piano reverted to being a Steinway in the central work of the concert. Brahms’ String Sextet No. 1 is one of the staples of the repertoire, but here it was heard in the arrangement for piano trio by the 19th-century composer and pianist Theodor Kirchner, himself a close friend of Brahms.
It works quite well in this new format, with Kirchner’s deep understanding of Brahms’ idiom giving an authentic feel to the piano writing, but at times it does sound like an arrangement. In moments such as the more subdued writing of the first movement, one does slightly long for the homogeneous textures of the original string scoring.
Enjoyable, then, but I rather wished they had included something from their contemporary repertoire instead of this hybrid.
The finest music, and the finest playing, was left to last. Here, in the slow movement of Schubert’s Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat Major, D. 898, we enjoyed a wistful, mellow side to the trio’s playing, not heard earlier.
This was led by cellist Martin Löhr, again with wonderful interplay between the two strings.
Alas, the Journal’s deadlines meant I had to leave before the final two movements, knowing that I was missing not only consummate piano trio music, but consummate piano trio playing.
Perhaps the Edmonton Chamber Music Society should consider an earlier start (and provide program notes), not to accommodate my deadline, but to encourage all those parents with young music students to come to concerts like this.
Not only will they enjoy the music, but they will experience how it should be done.