Crowd Pleaser produced without adventure

TRIOZ "Songs Without Words"
James O. Fairfax Theatre, NGA, February 18

This concert began, in musical chronology, where TRIOZ’ final concert of last year finished off, somewhere in the 1820s. The previous concert finished with Franz Schubert, and this one started with Robert Schumann and the three works traced the personal and musical connections between Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn and Johannes Brahms in the first half of the 19th century.

Schumann and Mendelssohn were born within a year of each other, were good friends and both died at a relatively early age: Schumann from syphilis and Mendelssohn from a nervous disposition and overwork.

Brahms was more than 20 years younger than the other two but became a close friend of Schumann’s wife Clara in Robert’s later years.

This was not so much a piano trio concert as a piano quartet concert, with pianist Kathryn Selby, violin player Niki Vasilakis and cellist Emma-Jane Murphy being joined by violist Irina Morozova for the works by Mendelssohn and Brahms.

The extra instrument adds not just another musical texture to the mix, but adds complexity in the musical coherence of the group.

A couple of times Morozova didn’t have the almost telepathic togetherness that was demonstrated by the trio in its previous concert and in the opening Schumann Piano Trio in A minor.

There were moments in this work where the cello line and the piano’s bass line were so perfectly synchronised, both in timing and tone, they virtually blended together.

Vasilakis’ violin playing continues to impress, with superb control over pitch and tone.

At one point in the second, slow movement of the Mendelssohn Piano Quartet No.2 in f minor, the violin has to hold a very quiet note high on the a-string. It is a technical challenge to do this, but this highly talented young musician coped with little obvious difficulty.

Kathryn Selby has worked out what is required to fill concerts venues.

At the heart is good musicianship and picking a program of broad appeal.

None of this challenging modern music to frighten the elderly, but a mix of the tried and true classics grouped together thematically so there are personal and musical connections in each concert, which are explained in the program notes and by Selby herself.

The programming may not be adventurous, but there is an audience for it and they respond enthusiastically.