Adelaide Advertiser

Selby and Friends

Elder Hall  -  Sunday 7 June - Rodney Smith, Advertiser Music Critic

The stellar careers of Kathryn Selby’s friends on this occasion spoke volumes as they matched her vigorous style and imposing technique with their own finely honed musicianship to make a formidable piano trio, one fully equal to their formidable program. Timo-Veikko Valve’s transcendent cello skills have energized the Australian Chamber Orchestra for some years now while lately appointed Sydney Symphony concertmaster Andrew Haveron previously led the Brodsky Quartet and BBC Symphony with splendidly intelligent musicianship. Both create the sort of tonal strength that allows Selby full rein with a concert grand, beckoning towards fruitful future collaborations one might think.

Mendelssohn’s D minor Trio Op 49 is something of a piano concerto with Selby facing zillions of notes to the page at lightning speed. It’s also a big-scale work and to her credit Selby allowed her colleagues plenty of freedom in setting energized tempos for three of its four movements, the last two in particular taking off like a rocket. With excitement aplenty this performance unequivocally showed Mendelssohn’s symphonic side.

Dvorak’s F Minor Trio Op 65 is even more dramatic on a Beethovenian scale and all three players maintained driven tempestuous momentum throughout, save the ruminative Poco Adagio where Haveron’s coloration proved especially luminous.

Martinu’s Violin and Cello Duo No 1 is intricately written so that it frequently sounds like a string quartet. Valve’s portrayal of its two kaleidoscopic cello cadenzas was stunningly powerful as he and Haverson dispatched the pyrotechnics with impressive command.