Momentous Milestones

At the second TRIOZ subscription recital, the milestones in question were a couple of anticipated bicentenaries.  Haydn’s death in 1809 was commemorated by the G minor Trio, the players striking gold in its central Adagio with some clear-speaking work from violinist Niki Vasilakis and a calm approach from pianist Kathryn Selby.  In the same year, Mendelssohn was born and his D minor Trio emerged again, a favorite in chamber music competitions and a never-failing pleasure for both performers and audience.

Dvorak’s chamber music output is very large, only a fraction heard regularly and the G minor Trio Op.  26 a true rarity.  While the inner movements yield most satisfaction for their content and outlines, the ensemble enjoyed greater success with the sometimes rambling first movement, mining a rich vein of anguish in this urgent lament.  Again, Selby showed her usual technical finesse and a restraint in hefty passages, giving Vasilakis and cellist Emma-Jane Murphy plenty of dynamic space. We are rightly proud of our local piano trios – Freshwater, Seraphim, Benaud, Yarra – but these Sydney-based musicians, both in this Dvorak and a near-unblemished account of the Mendelssohn work, set a high, consistent and thoroughly professional benchmark.