NZTrio: celebrating a legacy
The NZTrio’s recent Wellington concert, Legacy 1, opened with the first two of Schumann’s miniatures, “Six Pieces in Canon”. These were composed for his wife Clara to play on the piano and arranged here by the composer’s friend Theodor Kirchner. The NZTrio impressed at once with its fine sense of ensemble in these little contrapuntal pieces, written in homage to JS Bach. Also immediately striking was the bright, extrovert acoustic of the Public Trust Hall, especially in this arrangement of the performers on the side wall with curtains opened and the audience in a semi-circle around them.
The NZTrio is 20 years old. This is grounds for celebration, not only of a significant birthday, but of the ensemble’s consistent commitment to adventurous programming, including commissioning new trios from New Zealand composers. Over two decades they’ve performed a staggering 75 commissioned works.
Their very first commission was from award-winning composer Michael Norris. In 2003 his dirty pixels, visual-arts inspired explorations of sonic “roughness and raggedness”, was premiered by the Trio and has had numerous performances since, most recently in the NZTrio’s Tectonic Shift programmes in 2019.
In a full circle gesture, the Trio returned to Norris for a new work for their Legacy 1 programmes in Wellington and Auckland this month. His Horizon Fields is inspired by British artist Antony Gormley’s enormous installation Horizon Field Hamburg. The composer explains that “Gormley’s themes of floating planes suspended in architectural space, mirror-form reflections and gentle oscillations have been freely interpreted to form the core sonic ideas and musical behaviours” of the composition.
Antony Gormley’s Horizon Field Hamburg
“floating planes suspended in architectural space”
Norris’s Horizon Fields is beautiful, gleaming with shimmering or agitated surfaces, luminous piano flourishes and intriguing effects like double-stopped glissandi. He explores the sonic properties of the instruments, the harmonic series and even the inside of the piano for punctuating thumps. Even more impressive, though, is the work’s multi-dimensional everchanging structure, circling around a suspended C# pedal. The tension is maintained through many subtle mood-shifts, culminating in an intense climax. It’s a work we’ll hear many times, I hope.
The concert was also special as the first outing of the venue’s ‘new’ Bösendorfer grand piano. Previously owned by generous arts patron Christopher Marshall, whose recent death is lamented by musicians throughout the country, the piano was purchased last year by Maurice and Kaye Clarke, owners of the Public Trust Hall and supporters of ensembles who play there. In its new setting the piano becomes both a memorial for Marshall and a demonstration of the importance to the art form of patronage by music lovers.
NZTrio at the Public Trust Hall
with the venue’s newly acquired Bösendorfer piano
Somi Kim, the NZTrio’s pianist, was clearly having a ball on the instrument. The first movement of the marvellously jazzy Trio by Ukrainian composer Nikolai Kapustin was so energetic in its toe-tapping drive that the audience burst into spontaneous applause at the end. A lovely soulful bluesy melody from violinist Amalia Hall, answered by cellist Ashley Brown, slowed the pace in the second movement before a brilliant and joyous finale. Kapustin was himself a pianist and his dazzling writing showed off Kim’s flair for this music, all over the keyboard at high speed with a relaxed improvisatory style.
After this substantial first half the Trio returned for Beethoven’s monumental ‘Archduke’ Trio, Opus 97. Beethoven himself played the piano at the work’s premiere in 1811 and the story is often told of the increasingly deaf composer’s pounding, unattractive performance. He played it again a few weeks later but never performed in public again.
The NZTrio have shown great musicianship in previous Beethoven performances. In this first movement, their usual rapport and unflagging energy seemed less evident, though both qualities returned for an engaged Scherzo. The cantabile variations of the third movement sang along beautifully and a marvellous flurry of notes in the speedy Finale showed their virtuosity, including Kim’s brilliant keyboard skills. The Bösendorfer sounds very bright in its new home and this may have to contributed to some balance issues in the ‘Archduke’, the piano almost overwhelming the strings at times. But the good-sized audience was delighted, and a warm ovation was rewarded by a charming little encore by Kirchner.
NZTrio Legacy 1 Music by Schumann, Michael Norris, Kapustin and Beethoven was presented in the Public Trust Hall in Wellington on May 18, 2022 and will be repeated on May 29 in the Auckland Town Hall Concert Chamber. Tickets available here. Recorded by RNZ Concert for later broadcast.