A fine trio
1 Aug 10
An almost capacity audience, including at least 10 valley residents, appreciated an excellent concert given on Sunday July 25 at the Arthur Boyd Education Centre at Riversdale on the Shoalhaven River.
It was part of David Pereira's Cello Series, given in Canberra and repeated at Riversdale.
Having heard the three players performing at the last concert in the Riversdale Series in April, we were expecting the brilliant musicianship on display. David opened the program with a Beethoven sonata (in C, Op 102/1), which he dispatched with aplomb, accompanied by pianist Timothy Young. I don't know what Timothy says to the piano beforehand, but it sounded quite beautiful. Maybe the sound was affected by the placement of the performance halfway down the hall, with the audience in the half-round (much as we do in our KV Hall).
Natsuko Yoshimoto continued with Bach's solo violin Partita in E minor, BWV1006. She makes a strong committed sound and has a huge range of nuance. The Bach sang out over the Shoalhaven River, which was growing greyer by the minute as storm clouds started to roll through. David then returned with Timothy to play a new piece written by Sydney composer John Petersen. It was a frenetic piece called Race Against Time, in which both players were tested with tricky rhythms and unusual harmonies. The piece was written for the Cello Series, a tradition of commissioning that David is championing. The piece took everyone by the throat and only let go at the end, and I found it unsettling.
Another new Australian work opened the second half: Alicia Grant's Night Spell. This was an ethereal piece, with unhurried intersecting textures - the piano often repeating notes very softly, and the cello using harmonics. It was a delightful journey, amplified in intensity by the falling rain as the storm began.
We went home with the strains of the Brahms Trio no 3 in our minds. I'd not heard this work before and found it a questioning work that was trying to solve problems rather than state their solutions. This was the first time all three players came together in the performance, and they prove themselves to be a first class trio. One can only hope that they will present an all-trio program sometime in the future. It is always a thrill to hear such excellence in music-making.
The next Riversdale concert in the David Pereira Cello Series is scheduled for December 5.
Natsuko Yoshimoto, Timothy Young and David Pereira happy after their post-concert dinner at Jing Jo's
Belinda Webster