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23 Apr 2008 : A Sheer Delight
The Sunday 3pm slot, normally occupied by the Wellington Chamber Music Society’s big winter series, was filled last Sunday by Auckland University’s ensemble in residence, the New Zealand Trio (Justine Cormack, Ashley Brown, Sarah Watkins).
They have played for the society before but this time they took a totally contemporary programme on their own shoulders, to Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland.
There were two pieces by New Zealanders, three by foreigners. Gareth Farr’s and Eve de Castro-Robinson’s works were not only examples of the emergence of a blessed new era of beautiful, engaging music, but of music that could stand alongside overseas works without apology.
Farr’s Ahi (fire), written 10 years ago, comprised four movements of melodic delight. Each instrument of this excellent group grasped the individuality of the parts to produce stunning entertainment. Eve de Castro-Robinson’s At Water’s Birth employed the instruments in less orthodox ways: ricochet bowing, extreme treble and bass piano strings damped, in an enchanting picture of her subject, with each player contributing words of the poem by Denys Trussell.
The title of Hiroyuki Yamamoto’s Ultro Citroque, meaning ‘hither and thither’ or ‘up and down,’ was an accurate description of a hair-raising exercise that, like fire, or a bird, darted and plunged, hovered and swooped. A brilliant esprit; the trio played as if possessed, with frenzied glissandi and harmonics almost throughout.
New Yorker Jennifer Higdon also offers hope of a revival of music for music lovers rather than scholars. Her charming and inventive Piano Trio evokes two colours in her emotionally contrasted movements, Pale Yellow and Fiery Red: a sparkling reading.
Brazilian composer Raimundo Penaforte’s An Eroica Trio; a three section suite referencing Piazzolla, Ravel and Laurenco da Fonseca Barbosa, highly diverting, though perhaps was not as emotionally rewarding as the Farr or Higdon.
Lindis Taylor - Dominion Post, Wellington
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