Review: NZTrio at the Auckland Museum

NZ Trio are (left to right) Sarah Watkins (piano) , Ashley Brown (cello) and Justine Cormack (violin). Photo / Supplied

A month ago, NZTrio was Sydneyside, captivating an international audience of cognoscenti with the music of our composers, as part of the ISCM's World New Music Days Festival.

On Saturday, the second of the group's Auckland Museum concert series set off with another mighty challenge - Mozart.

The seriousness of Mozart's G minor Piano Quartet perplexed the pleasure-bent Viennese at the time, yet even the irredeemably sybaritic would have surrendered to the persuasive gravitas that NZTrio, with violist Robert Ashworth, brought to Mozart's opening pages.

Not helped by the venue's acoustics, that impression did not last. Justine Cormack's insecure intonation detracted from the sheen and the closing rondo revealed how elusive Mozartian phrasing can be.

The evening's contemporary content was Mike Nock's Dialogues, Meditations and Reflections. Instead of programme notes, pianist Sarah Watkins read a note from the composer, warning us against investigating the influences that lay behind the work. Alas, they were too easy to identify in this audience-smooching collection of pieces, with tiresome sequences, easy harmonies and plodding contrapuntal sorties.

After interval, NZTrio snapped back to form for Alfred Schnittke's 1988 Piano Quartet. Once more, programme notes would have been appreciated, but Ashley Brown was a lively MC. This was music, he claimed, that would come out and grab us and, if you needed the postmodernism to be demystified, this was nothing more than Mahler receiving the Schnittke treatment.

For seven electrifying minutes, we were treated to the NZTrio that we cannot afford to be without, delivering music with unswerving drive and tenacity. Each musician made a strong individual impact through Schnittke's complex, scuffed textures, Cormack soaring into thrilling flight with her "Mahler tune".

The same excitement and commitment carried over into Schumann's Piano Quartet. Not all players matched Brown's melting lyricism in the Andante cantabile, but the rhythmic verve of the finale swept all criticisms aside.