Papaioea Piano Trio to perform inaugural concert at Palmerston North's Globe Theatre

Robert Ibell, Guy Donaldson and Elizabeth Patchett are the Papaioea Piano Trio. Photo / Supplied

The Papaioea Piano Trio will perform their inaugural concert on Sunday. The trio members have a strong connection with Palmerston North.

Guy Donaldson has for many years been a regular performer in the Globe Sunday Matinee programmes as well as being a teacher and music coach in Manawatū. He has accompanied distinguished artists such as Dame Malvina Major, Anna Leese, Olga Shanina and violinist Hannah Fang, and has been a concerto soloist with the Manawatū Sinfonia.

Elizabeth Patchett was born in Auckland and raised in Hamilton. She was an orchestral musician with the Auckland Philharmonia before joining the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra in 1993. Patchett has toured and recorded as a member of the New Zealand Chamber Orchestra, and has toured for Chamber Music New Zealand as a member of the Nevine String Quartet.

In recent years she has made an impact on the Manawatū music scene as a teacher and has had significant success in coaching advanced violin students in the region.

Robert Ibell was born in Dannevirke and was brought up in Palmerston North. He learned cello from Judith Hyatt in Wellington, and between 1986 and 1992 lived and studied cello in London, playing in professional and amateur orchestras. From 1993 to 2019, Robert was a member of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. He is now a cello and double bass teacher, and has begun a teaching practice in Palmerston North.

For their first concert, the trio have chosen trio works from three eras.

Beethoven's C minor piano trio was included in the first set of pieces he published. His teacher, Joseph Haydn, didn't approve of the piece, saying it was too hard to understand, but Beethoven apparently thought Haydn was just jealous, and published it anyway. It was an instant hit with the public, and marked to the world a unique talent had emerged.

C minor is a key Beethoven would use later in many of his significant and dramatic works, such as the Pathetique Sonata and the Fifth Symphony. The music is wide-ranging in its expression, from impassioned, turbulent and filled with angst, to simple lyricism, through to quite unexpected twists and turns of ideas. It remains a masterwork, despite being a product of his youth.

Composer Claire Cowan received awards from the Auckland Philharmonia and the NZSO National Youth Orchestra while she was still at university. She won the Silver Scroll award for her first television series soundtrack Hillary. She also wrote the score for Under the Vines, recently shown on TV. In 2019, she wrote the score for the Royal New Zealand Ballet – Hansel and Gretel, which was recorded by the NZSO in 2020.

Her piece Subtle Dances was written for the New Zealand Trio in 2013, and remains the most performed composition by that trio. It has arresting colour effects in the string writing, beautiful song-like writing in the piano, and a uniquely personal sound world that is exciting for the listeners and demanding for the performers.

The music of the late-19th-century Russian composer Anton Arensky is not often performed outside Russia. Indeed Rimsky-Korsakov wrote "in his youth Arensky did not escape some influence from me; later, the influence from Tchaikovsky. He will quickly be forgotten". In recent years, this 1894 trio has been "rediscovered" by performers and audiences, and has earned the recognition it deserves.

In addition to its Tchaikovsky characteristics, the music has some of the charm of Mendelssohn, some of the virtuosity of Liszt, and some suggestions of what would emerge in the music of Rachmaninov.

The Papaioea Trio is proud to present these character-filled pieces in their inaugural programme.

The details
What: Globe Sunday Matinee Concert
When: May 29, 2.30pm
Where: Globe Theatre
Tickets: Admission is by donation, recommended from $5