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Eye on Arts

10.3.04

Once Every Four Years, cont. — by Jens Laurson
Contributed by Charles T. Downey at 9:12 AM | Link to this article
The facial expression of the three musicians did not quite communicate the joy of music making. No doubt unrelated to the piece at hand, theirs were the faces of consternation, struggle, and, for that matter, constipation. Brooding and almost suffering: transfigured, in short. Cellist Matthias Gredler with his polite, schoolboy appearance looked like he was ready to weep just about any moment; Wolfgang Redik, the violinist, contorted his face as though he were ascending heavenwards with a lemon in his mouth; and Stefan Mendl did his own thing on the piano, but in a much more light-spirited way than his fellow trio members. While this might be unfortunate, because facial expressions and gestures communicate the music almost as much as the sound waves, it matters less so in the West Garden Court where only the most dedicated listeners arrive early enough to get seats with a good view. Comparison with the Takács Quartet to which I continue to refer (and will write about) made it more obvious than it otherwise would have been. This arrangement of the Schoenberg piece, a joy to hear and hear live as it is in whichever version, finally falls ultimately short of its string sextet and orchestral versions. Were it not for those editions, though, Schoenberg would have been considered the esteemed author of the most important piano trio of the looming 20th century.

Intermission separated this well-received part of the performance from Schubert's Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat major, op. 99, D. 898, from 1828, commonly referred to as the "Piano Trio." It dates from the unfathomably productive period of Schubert's last two years, and as virtually every single work from that time, it is an unqualified success. Elmer Booze in his always enjoyable and informative program notes points out that it had been first recognized as the masterpiece it is by Robert Schumann. The famous Mozart scholar Alfred Einstein (I used to tack a hyphenated "not related" to his name, but it turns out that he was a cousin of his more famous physicist namesake) hears all kinds of self-references to Schubert songs in this work. I should not be surprised that the musicologist has finer ears than I. Or perhaps a score to work from. I enjoyed the music, nonetheless. If you thought that Schubert chamber-works would be a dainty affair of nimble niceness and pure pleasantry, you were wrong. Excitement from the first to the last note with plenty of energy to spare was revealed with ease in the outstanding interpretation by this very young trio. At the time of hearing it, I even found the word riveting to be "deserved without qualification." That's difficult to imagine for early-19th-century chamber music even though I was there. But the 16-year-old trio (they must have started playing together in the sandbox) made a wonderful impression on me.

From the beautiful second movement (Andante), with its piano/cello opening that casts a spell over the audience to the wild Scherzo: Allegro, it is captivating music. The Scherzo saw Mr. Redik's bow suffer some major hair loss and the horsehair strands flew like an exclamatory fane through the air, conducting the music in giddy excitement, but always slightly after the fact. All of this is miles away from the beautiful but far less exciting "Rosamunde" string quartet played just last week at the Library of Congress by the Brodsky Quartet (see Ionarts reviews on February 23 and February 27. The crashing finale to the fourth-movement rondo, with its variations of a motif in different keys, made the point once more. And what would a Viennese evening be without dessert! The audience was well rewarded for its applause with the third movement from Antonin Dvořák's Piano Trio in F Minor in honor of the centennial of the composer's death. Composed just 16 years prior to Schoenberg's work, it has a strong and moving character while remaining squarely within the realm of tradition. Truly a great way to end the concert that was one of the innumerable highlights of this season at the National Gallery of Art.

To buy the recordings mentioned in this review at Amazon:

Haydn, Complete Piano Trios, Beaux Arts Trio	Haydn Piano Trios with the Vienna Piano Trio	Schoenberg, Verklärte Nacht, Orchestral Version (Karajan)	Schoenberg, Verklärte Nacht, String Sextet Version (Juilliard Quartet, Trampler, Yo-Yo Ma)
Dvořák, Complete Piano Trios (Beaux Arts Trio)	Dvořák, Piano Trios, Joachim Trio (Naxos, F minor, and "Dumsky")	Schubert Piano Trios (Ashkenazy, Zuckerman, Harrell)

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