Trio Wanderer
This morning’s concert brought the season at the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts to a close. The audience has grown noticeably this year and today’s stunning performance was given in an atmosphere of intense and close listening. The Trio Wanderer began their concert with Dvorak’s Piano Trio no.4 Op. 90 “Dumky”. Six movements took us from lively sparkling moods through to soulful melancholic sections. There were engaging Slavonic dance rhythms, folk melodies and the fast changing balance of the three instruments with each taking melodic lines or impelling the motion forwards gave the movements distinct character and substance. There was plenty of depth for the close listener as well as obvious attractive and lyrical writing and these extremely refined musicians took us into Dvorak’s world with enormous sensitivity and astonishingly close ensemble playing. Brilliant fast passages, rich warm melodies and great agility in the fast changing moods and textures kept us listening to this well known piece as though for the first time.
Joseph Suk’s Elegie Op.23 is not well known at all and deserves more performances. The piano trio is his arrangement from the original written for Violin, ‘Cello, String Quartet, Harmonium and Harp. This morning the short single movement gave the musicians licence if it were needed to show us really virtuosic playing. Rich legato melodies, close harmonies between the two strings and muscular anguished passages made this a most suitable item to follow the Dvorak. Suk’s teacher, after all.