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15 Apr 2006 : Assured young trio of highest standard
Seldom does one hear a group of young people who work so naturally together.These three musicians all variously studied abroad before returning to New Zealand, teaming up as a very fine ensemble. They play with great assurance, and in the New Zealand Trio we have a chamber group of international standard.
As Justine Cormack observed in her opening comments on the programme, it was arranged chronologically in reverse. Whether or not by intention, she did not say. Perhaps it was a gesture of priority that saw two New Zealand pieces at the start of the concert. The Triumvirate by Chris Cree Brown was the opener and, like its successor,
dirty pixels by Michael Norris, was commissioned by the New Zealand Trio. I found Cree Brown's work readily accessible, well balanced and just the right length for its uncompromising idiom. Michael Norris missed out in his dirty pixels, an overly self- conscious piece that kept on trying to prove a point that he couldn't define.
The Piano Trio by Schnittke is a work of intense personality that was brought out with great insight by the performers. The hauntingly beautiful ending is one of those musical passages that remains with one long after the performance, so had to be programmed before interval.
Despite the best efforts of the trio, the conflict of Mozart and Avro Part in his Mozart-Adagio was too hard to fathom for my tastes. So it was a relief to move on to one of the greatest works in the repertoire, the Ravel Piano Trio. Conservative in comparison to the rest of the concert, its inspiration was matched by the sensitivity and power of its performance by the New Zealand Trio.
David Sell - The Christchurch Press
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