Elder Hall. Selby & Friends. 18 May 2025

 

Kristian Winther, violin, and Clancy Newman, cello, join Kathryn Selby, piano, in a bravura performance of three starkly different piano trios that has the audience in a collective and sustained state of excitement from beginning to end. The program title This Mirror Has Three Faces takes its name from Lera Auerbach’s Piano Trio No.2, which opens the concert, and is followed by Robert Schumann’s Piano Trio No.3 in G minor, Op.110, and Bedrich Smetana’s Op.15 trio written in the same key.

 

At the beginning of the concert, as the musicians take their seats and get ready, Winther casts his eyes around the vast Elder Hall auditorium and seemingly takes in every single member of the audience with an almost mocking gaze as if to say ‘you have been warned’! In hindsight, this would have been good advice – the concert is a roller coaster!

 

Soviet-born Austrian-American composer Lera Auerbach’s piano trio is a five-section work composed in 2011 that comes across as being in three movements, and it is an all-out assault on everything we know about the ‘classic’ piano trio (such as the Schumann and Smetana trios that follow). Auerbach has described her own music as always containing something that is “wrong”. The trio begins with crashing chords on the piano, that are sustained “wrongness”, but it settles quickly into a finely balanced but sparse conversation between the three instruments. Winther produces the softest of sounds almost without beginnings or ends, and the cello follows suit. Just as we think that “wrongness” is behind us, the second section ushers in declarative passion with voices speaking over and through each other. It’s exciting, and Selby is ever watchful of the strings to ensure that she clearly and emphatically finishes the dialogue when needed. There is much spiccato and slapping of strings in the waltz section with the essential rhythm and melody conveyed by the piano. The three-way dialogue is expertly driven and managed by Selby. The fourth section has frequent moments of silence that create a false impression that the section is concluded, and seeing it performed rather than just hearing it adds to the sense of anticipation. The final section is the most lyrical and is a perfect segue into Schumann’s trio.

 

Winther addresses the audience and talks about the genesis of the Schumann trio, which is scored in four movements, and observes that it was composed in 1851, was a bit of an outlier in the context of Schumann’s other compositions around the same time, and was written at a time when Schumann’s health and well-being was in decline.

 

Winther proceeded to wear the most emphatic and studied look on his face as the Schumann got under way, perhaps continuing to think about what he has just explained to the audience. His expressive face telegraphs the drama the of the music. Newman watches Winther intently ensuring the dialogue between violin and cello is razor sharp, and it is immensely enjoyable to watch and hear. The second movement is marked by punctuated rhythms with an abundance of staccato from all instruments, and the synchronisation between them is impressively precise. This gives way to the third movement which is introspective but bright, and the fourth amplifies this with numerous declamatory points throughout the light and repeated motif. The audience loves it!

 

As enjoyable as the Auerbach and Schumann are, the performance of the Smetana trio is a highlight. Selby speaks about the composition and observes that Smetana was a bit of a musical rebel and refused to be consumed by the dominant Germanic ways of doing things! He is considered to be a founding father of nationalism in Czech music. Selby explains that the trio was written at a time of extreme grief in Smetana’s life coinciding with the death of his child, and as such the composition is evocative of both sad and happy memories. There are sections that are incredibly sweet and tender and brimming with love and affection, and these are contrasted with music that evokes feelings of deep grief and abject sadness. It opens enigmatically on violin, and Winther imbues the musical phrases with an eeriness. The cello joins in and immediately puts us at ease with a beautiful theme sweetly played by Newman. The violin and piano join in and Selby expertly links the musical ideas together with deft touch at the keyboard. With the flick of her wrist Selby changes the mood with finely executed passage work from sweetness to suffering. The second movement restates the closing thematic material from the first, but it is more furtive and playful, which is reflected on the faces of the trio as they glance at each other and shift in their seats. It’s fun to watch – almost a game of musical cat and mouse – but it settles and morphs into sunny melodies that gradually give way to grander themes that seem to be pregnant with meaning. It’s written on Winther’s face. The third and final movement is what the audience has been waiting for. We’ve all heard it before, somewhere, even if we don’t remember where it comes from. It begins with speed and Selby sets the character immediately. Her articulation and dynamics are exquisite, and Newman and Winther are swept up in the dialogue and punctuate it with some well controlled pizzicato as it races to the bittersweet conclusion of the celebration of a life.

 

The applause from the audience is exuberant and generous, but it is richly deserved. This time Newland and Selby scan the audience taking them all in, and Winther smiles contently.

 

Kym Clayton

 

When: 18 May

Where: Elder Hall

Bookings: Closed