There was a sense of celebration, marred only by the thudding beats of revivalist worship downstairs. A well-filled Town Hall Concert Chamber hosted an audience keen to welcome home some distinguished young Auckland musicians.
This was the final stop on a nationwide tour for John Chen, Natalie Lin and Edward King playing together as CLiK, a piano trio that were also a modest supergroup, considering the achievements of the members.
Importantly, too, Chamber Music New Zealand was marking the first half-century of its annual Chamber Music Contest by showcasing three illustrious alumni. The first half of the evening consisted of solo turns. Granados' Allegro de Concierto suited John Chen well. Always reliable for dealing out glinting brilliance, this was beautifully tempered by melting rubato asides. While a new commission from a young local composer would have been highly appropriate, Lilburn's 1950 Sonata for Violin and Piano fitted well with that composer's centenary.
This is an austere score, from those early, bitter jabs of piano. But somehow, it did not quite take fire. Lin, trapped behind a music stand, seemed cautious, perhaps over-respectful and the work's stoic lyricism was muted.
Edward King then gave us Ginastera's Pampeana No 2 from memory, bringing a sinuous physicality to very physical music. He revelled in both its rhapsodic liberties and, with Chen in full storm mode, its wild rhythmic outbursts.
If ever there was music written for friends, then it must be Schubert's piano trios. After interval, the first of these, a welcome main course after a succession of entrees, bloomed in these players' hands.
Schubert's emotional volatility was always acknowledged, right from that self-consciously grand opening that eventually subsides into King's pianissimo lyricism, gracefully echoed by Lin.
CLiK locked into the gentle gemutlichkeit of the Andante and, after a neatly judged Scherzo, illuminated the haunting sparseness of its Trio. More was to come. A gorgeous slow movement from an obscure 1861 Trio by Joachim Raff may well have been the highlight of the evening for some, with its sumptuous piano harmonies and alluring melodic weave of violin and cello.
What: CLiK the ensemble
Where: Auckland Town Hall Concert Chamber Reviewer: