(L-R) Erika Nickrenz, Susie Park and Sara Sant'Ambrogio. Photo / Supplied
(L-R) Erika Nickrenz, Susie Park and Sara Sant'Ambrogio. Photo / Supplied
Not only did the Eroica Trio more than fulfil Chamber Music New Zealand's glamour quota for the year on Saturday night, but its sleek, savvy musicianship augured well for the season ahead.
Rebecca Clarke's Piano Trio was remarkable. Here was a composer, in 1921, admitting hints of Bartokian passion intothe unruffled realms of English music; a woman whom one male writer of the time condescendingly praised as "the most advanced of the lady songsters".
The Trio maintained unerring focus through Clarke's tightly knit score to its infectiously rhythmic Finale, although it was a shame that Susie Park's lyrical violin lines in the second movement had to contend with the clatter of latecomers.
Had encore time come early, one wondered, when the three women launched into a succession of shorter pieces?
However, only a cur could demur when Sara Sant'Ambrogio's cello and Park's violin dueted so fetchingly in Piazzolla's Oblio and the Trio threw itself into his Primavera Portena with such gusto.
Paul Schoenfield's Café Music was a revelation, presented with such charm and suavity that wit triumphed over mere humour.
Every opportunity for high spirits was avidly seized, from Erika Nickrenz's striding barrelhouse piano to her colleagues' swooning portamenti in the Andante.
After interval Mendelssohn's C minor Trio was a welcome tribute to this much maligned composer in his bicentenary year,
The opening Allegro was the breeziest of ripples, with just the right leeway permitted when cantabile was called for.
The Andante may set off less promisingly (Mendelssohn in distressingly bland mode) but it soon asserted its individuality through the intense interplay of violin and cello. After a dazzling Scherzo a la Weber, the Finale came up with sterner stuff and, towards the end, when Mendelssohn asks for fire, the women were veritable sisters of Pele.
The encore was short and sweet; Saint-Saens' The Swan, dominated by the lovely cello of Sant'Ambrogio, but allowing Park a nice line in kitschy countermelodies.
