The third and final 'Legacy' concert from NZTrio in 2022, celebrating their 20th Anniversary. 20 years of vibrant performances and this one is full of good vibrations.
NZTrio - Somi Kim, Ashley Brown, Amalia Hall Photo: Jen Raoult
SCHUMANN: Six Studies in Canonic Form Op 56, Nos 5 & 6
In 1845, Robert and his wife Clara were engrossed in studying the music of Bach and in particular, fugue – the contrapuntal form that Bach excelled at. And if you’re studying all of Bach fugues, then you really need an organ. Not really a possibility in a domestic setting, but there was a thing called the pedal piano – and as it says on the label, it’s a piano with some foot pedals for playing bass notes just like on an organ. So the Schumanns got one of those for their parlour.
Robert wrote a set of six studies for the instrument and they were later arranged for piano trio by his friend and pupil Theodor Kirchner.
GAO Ping: Searching for the Mountain
A work inspired by a trip that Gao Ping made to the Ganzi region of China on the border of Tibet, where he stood on a mountain-top and could see several famous Himalayan peaks in the distance.
He writes: “the work tries neither to narrate nor depict, though, for me, the music is, in an indescribable manner, permeated with all the impressions from that unforgettable experience.”
This work was commissioned especially for this Legacy concert by NZTrio.
Gunther SCHULLER: Piano Trio
Gunther Schuller, who died in 2015, was a man who walked in the worlds of both jazz and classical and did a huge amount to bring them together. He even coined the term “third stream” which describes this space where the two worlds meet.
This piano trio of his, written in 1984, is a perfect example. Jazz underpins some pretty complicated classical techniques including 12-tone writing.
TCHAIKOVSKY: Piano Trio in A minor Op 50
Pyotr Tchaikovsky was very reluctant to write a piano trio despite being asked for one by his patron Nadezhda von Meck. He wrote to her, saying “I simply cannot endure the combination of piano with violin or cello.”
However he did for some reason take up the form in response to the death of his dear friend and mentor, the pianist Nikolay Rubinstein. Tchaikovsky wrote his only piano trio “to the memory of a great artist”.
The work opens with an elegy to Rubinstein and includes a funeral march.
The second movement is a set of variations on a simple theme. It’s said that the melody was inspired by the memory of Russian folk music played at a country picnic attended by both men. The movement comes in two sections, marked A and B in the score. Part A includes the theme followed by eleven variations. Part B is headed “Final variation and coda”. This final variation is much longer and more elaborate than the previous eleven and it leads to the coda in which the elegiac melody from the opening movement reappears and fades out into another funeral march.
Peter KIESEWETTER: Trio Pathétique
A cheeky encore quoting Tchaikovsky all over the place.
Recorded by RNZ Concert, Auckland Concert Chamber, 17 November 2022
Producer: Tim Dodd
Engineer: Adrian Hollay
