There was no faulting the musicianship or artistry of Alexa Still, Roger Chase and Yolanda Kondonassis when they took the Town Hall stage on Saturday night for Chamber Music New Zealand.
Yet it was a frustrating evening. The venue did little for the delicate shadings that this trio
offered. Early on, before tackling Takemitsu's And Then I Knew 'Twas Wind, harpist Kondonassis advised us to relax and let the sound wash over us. Perhaps we could have - in a small to medium-sized concert hall.
It was also a shock later to find that the programme had run for almost 2 1/2 hours, not helped by too many rambling and difficult-to-hear introductions from the performers.
Not so when Kondonassis introduced her solo turn, Carlos Salzedo's Song of the Night, a piece which she told us "morphed into more than a pretty little dream gesture". She had already earned a hearty laugh by telling us how an eager youngster once likened the sound of her instrument to clean washing, because of inevitable glissando sweeps in the detergent ads on television.
The Salzedo fascinated as Kondonassis drew iridescent colours from all manner of sweeping, plucking and tapping - just as Still had enchanted us earlier with the supple lyricism of Debussy's Syrinx.
Of the longer works, Debussy's classic 1915 Sonata was an exquisite ensemble piece but, being last on the bill, simply too late in the evening.
Bax's Elegiac Trio had fared better in the first half, evoking the billowing waves of the Irish Sea with wafting dynamic play.
Richard Rodney Bennett's Sonata after Syrinx came across as slightly academic. This is a work that could well have been preceded by a few illustrations, pointing out its relationship to the Debussy solo that preceded it.
Unnecessary were the admittedly perky Ibert Interludes added to the programme and an encore of the Meditation from Massenet's Thais.
Saddest of all was the presentation of Helen Fisher's Matairangi 2 in a truncated version. I am sure many, captivated by its combination of tin-whistle piccolo, bagpiping viola and drummed harp, might have appreciated more time in her world.
