CONCERT: TrioZ, St Andrew's Cathedral, Tuesday, March 20
Trio takes a pew

Steve Moffatt
23Mar07

CONDITIONS may not have been ideal for chamber music on a steamy night with the fans turned off to stop the background buzz, but St Andrew's Cathedral in the city made a stunning backdrop for one of Australia's most exciting new ensembles.

Newly-christened TrioZ this group, led by pianist Kathy Selby with Niki Vasilakis on violin and former ACO principal cellist Emma-Jane Murphy, was born out of last year's bitter demise of the Macquarie Trio.

And they prove that for every negative there is a positive for these three musicians not only have all the cards in the deck when it comes to technique but they obviously enjoy playing together.

Things did not get off to the smoothest start, however, with Selby having to call for a key to unlock her colleagues from the vestry. She also had to apologise for the sightlines: when they had tried raising the piano on to a dais before the concert the acoustic "disappeared'' into the beautifully vaulted ceiling.

No matter, with musicmaking of this quality the audience was content to peer round pillars and neighbours or to watch the performance on the twin closed-circuit TV flat screens.

The trio opened its first season together with Beethoven's jovial (after a trademark slow and mysterious opening) Kakadu variations with its theme that always reminds me of Monty Python's Lumberjack song.

Mendelssohn followed and the opening allegro of the second trio Op 66 featured some energetic interplay between Adelaide-born Vasilakis' Guadagnini violin and Murphy's cello. The storm subsided in the lilting andante which was managed quite beautifully.
After a quicksilver scherzo the trio was exhilarating in its handling of the passionate final movement.

You always learn something at a Kathy Selby concert. She believes in breaking down the barrier between performer and listener by talking about the pieces and composers.
I didn't know that Maurice Ravel was once considered as director of the NSW Conservatorium. Henri Verbrugghen got the job instead and, as Selby says, one is left to wonder "what if''.

It was Ravel's pellucid trio in A minor which finished off the evening. Composed on the eve of World War I at an unhappy period of the composer's life it is nevertheless a ravishing work with a feeling of colour and sunlight bursting through the trees of his native Basque country.

The trio shone in the three quicker movements and the stately passacaglia was particularly moving in the shadow of stained glass windows and the tombs of bishops.

© 2006 Cumberland Newspaper Group