4 May 2010 : Modern and traditional, with feeling

Despite the trials of touring 10 centres, the New Zealand Trio showed composure and great commitment in their performance.

Schumann's Second Piano Trio in F Opus 80 was played with wonderful energy and conviction. So intense was his music, expressing his forceful triumph over his mental fragility and anguish. It was a roller-coaster of emotion.

The third movement, starting out in the melancholy key of B flat minor, was like a solitary, sad waltz by a man not long for this world. But it was followed by an upsurge of heroic joy in the finale. This was sublime.

The trio are unanimous about performing newly commissioned and contemporary music.

First came American Jennifer Higdon's Piano Trio. Only three weeks ago, Higdon won the Pulitzer Prize for Composition with a violin concerto. Her Piano Trio is in two movements titled Pale Yellow and Fiery Red – the first gently lyrical and mellow, the second a driving, vibrant tempest of sound. An interesting experiment in musical colour and contrast.

The next was a commissioned work, So Many Rivers, by New Zealand jazz pianist Judy Bailey. This was lovely easy listening, reminiscent of Piazzola. I especially enjoyed the rich sumptuous cello.

We were then treated to another romantic trio, by Spanish composer Joaquin Turina. It was full of rhythmic interplay, evoking guitar sounds and flamenco dance. Totally engrossing.

For me, the most challenging piece on the programme was Australian Stuart Greenbaum's The Year Without A Summer. Its theme was so topical – the eruption in 1815 of Mt Tambora in Indonesia, more than four times as big as the eruption of Krakatoa in the same century. The resulting ash cloud was so suffocating there was no summer the following year.

The first movement rose to a huge crescendo – full of ominous descending scale passages, pedalled vibrations from the piano, and devastating agitation. One could imagine the terrifying approach of the ash cloud. Then came a dramatic moment of crushing silence, with an unreal resonating rumble from within the piano, Watkins scraping her fingernails along the piano strings.

The second movement was introduced by the cello. A response of desolation and hopeless reflection on the powers of planet Earth. The piece ended with an eerie stillness and a stunning unresolved chord.

Congratulations, New Zealand Trio. A meaningful combination of contemporary and traditional chamber music.

Margot Hannigan - Nelson Mail