16 Apr 2008 : Outstanding Trio

Christchurch was the choice for the start of this tour of the New Zealand Trio. This group of three young musicians resident at the University of Auckland showed for me how far talented and enterprising musicians can go once out in the wider world. All three are remembered as unusually promising students at the University of Canterbury who subsequently studied and played abroad.

As a promising group, the NZTrio is outstanding. Not only are they technically sure as individuals, but their ensemble playing, even in the most demanding items, was impeccable.

All five items in the programme were composed in the past 10 years. It was almost a 21st-century programme, and covered a surprisingly wide range of styles from New Zealand, American, Brazilian and Japanese composers.

Ahi, by Gareth Farr, was the oldest and most traditional offering. Its mixture of classical, percussive and minimalist idioms made it the most assimilable of the five works played to a respectable sized audience. Ultro citroque, by Japanese composer Hiroyuki Yamamoto, was to my ears the most interesting. Yamamoto approached the piano-trio medium in a completely different way, to produce sounds that were as exciting in their potential as in their actuality.

A particular strength of NZTrio is in revealing work of composers new to us. The Piano Trio of American Jennifer Higdon is a particularly interesting and accessible piece. She seems to have a thing about colours, which may or may not connect with her listeners. Of the two movements, the first, Pale Yellow, left me cold, but the second, Fiery Red, was indeed that.

Eve de Castro-Robinson took the prize for the newest item. With her At water’s Birth, commissioned by NZTrio, and receiving its world premiere at this concert.

It was though, the final item on the programme, Brazilian Raimundo Penaforte’s An Eroica Trio, that won for variety, if not originality.

David Sell - The Christchurch Press