Fervid Abandon Wanes In Whimsy

Sydney Morning Herald

Friday August 24, 2007

Reviewed by Peter McCallum

KUNGSBACKA PIANO TRIO

Musica Viva City Recital Hall, August 20.

PAUL STANHOPE'S piano trio Dolcissimo Usignolo is built around a vocal madrigal by Monteverdi in which the proverbial forlorn lover expresses envy of the nightingale for its wings and its capacity to attract members of the opposite sex.

Bits of the madrigal, rethought for instruments, waft in and out of the trio just as thoughts of the nightingale drift through the original madrigal, and at times the vigorous, non-madrigal parts of the trio seem to take flight with fervid arpeggios and what sounds like a slightly tongue-in-cheek sense of exaggeration, abandon and extravagance.

The piece reminded me of another work of Stanhope's which makes an affectionate and possibly envious reference to the past, his Fantasia on a Theme by Vaughan Williams. In Dolcissimo Usignolo, the much-envied nightingale and the madrigal could be taken as symbols of a past where people sang without the postmodern uncertainty of not knowing whether they are being serious or ironic. Like much of Stanhope's work, this abounded in well-crafted textures.

I was a little disappointed, however, that the Kungsbacka Piano Trio, the winner of the 1999 Melbourne Chamber Music competition, hadn't taken Beethoven's Piano Trio in B flat, Opus 97 just a little more seriously. The first movement had a capricious approach to rhythm, and the tempo tended to bulge and rush unnecessarily.

In these expansive works of his middle period, Beethoven builds up a magnificent architectural rhythmic edifice which has room for flexibility but not whimsy. Careful restraint establishes a framework for the building of a powerful sense of tension, and the rhythmic impulsiveness of this performance didn't serve this purpose well.

Such an approach might seem, at first blush, to be more appropriate for Brahms's Piano Trio in C Major, Opus 87, which came after interval, although the continuous changing of tempo in the first movement tended to deprive it of shape and telling points of emphasis.

Most successful was the slow movement which violinist Malin Broman played with strong lyrical and expressive instincts. Overall, the sound was not projected strongly enough for Brahms and the scherzo lacked the togetherness and fleetness one would expect from a leading ensemble.

© 2007 Sydney Morning Herald

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