Glenroy Auditorium
Wednesday, May 24
A large audience gave spirited applause to the wonderful performance and cleverly devised programme by NZTrio at the Glenroy in Dunedin on Wednesday night.
A stimulating array of music opened with Mozart’s Piano Trio in B Flat major.
The work became a vehicle designed for the pianist Somi Kim’s quicksilver ornaments and lithe nuanced touch.
The violin played by Amalia Hall and cello by Ashley Brown enter imperceptibly and embellish the colour with NZTrio’s signature excellence.
Arvo Part’s Mozart-Adagio is an exquisitely sensual work which weaves in an out of the minimalism he is renown for.
Commemorating a violinist friend, it provides a wonderful opportunity for Hall to excel. Its dissonances are drawn into a respectful prayer while Part traverses a wide sonorous pallet.
Gareth Farr’s technically demanding Forbidden Colours is yet another treat from this well-loved composer.
The scintillating sound of the gamelan orchestral was brilliantly executed by Kim and echoed later by Hall and Brown.
The work rises to a rapturous and strident melee of colours before retreating back into white noise.
Claire Cowan’s Ultra Violet maintains the programming theme by observing that birds can see a wider range of colours than us mere humans, thus enhancing their survival skills.
Cowan navigates a mesmerising world with delicious forays through glissandos, harmonics and minimalistic passages.
Brahms’ Piano Trio in C Minor was performed with new vigour and attack. His germanic brooding, his sweetly echoed songs, irregular rhythms and heavy and sweeping piano chords were a lovely foil to the lightness of the preceding programmed works.
After a challenging programme NZTrio generously gave an encore of Brahms’ Hungarian Dance No 6, which they performed with beguiling sass bringing to life a village scene of another time and place.
As always, and as expected, total perfection.
• The concert was presented by Chamber Music New Zealand, as part of its CMNZ Series.
