Violinist Viktoria Mullova, along with cellist Matthew Barley and pianist Stephen De Pledge, were the musical pillars in an evening of fine chamber music. Photo / Heike Fischer
Could there be a more perfect pairing of piano trios than Schubert's second and Ravel's only contributions to the genre? These were the musical pillars in a superlative evening of chamber music from violinist Viktoria Mullova, cellist Matthew Barley and pianist Stephen De Pledge.
Both works are deceptively easy
on the ear; Schubert with an unending stream of tunefulness, Ravel with evanescent yet clear-edged textures. However, something altogether deeper lies beneath the one's melodic innocence and the other's chic elegance: a bittersweet poignancy reminding us that Schubert was mortally ill at the time and Ravel, in 1914, finished his work on the brink of an epoch-ending war.
Here, Schubert was first to enchant us, especially when the streaking gleam of De Pledge's scales took us to that irrepressibly catchy second theme. Another high point was Mullova and Barley soaring over cascading triplets that might have fallen from the composer's piano impromptus.
Barley's singular tone, resinous and autumnal, invested the Andante con moto with an almost klezmer-like beguilement, a theme given a goosebump-inducing reprise in an otherwise sparkling finale.
After interval, being transported by Ravel, I recalled one writer describing his trio as having an austerity both chaste and passionate. The musicians conveyed just this in willowy rhythmic sways, unexpected eruptions of fury and, above all, the uncluttered beauty of Mullova and Barley's unisons.
