NZ Trio: unquiet dreams, musical arguments and a wild ride

New York-based composer Lera Auerbach

“…takes the audience on a wild and unpredictable ride.”

NZ Trio has an admirably adventurous approach to programme curation and has introduced audiences to many fascinating contemporary composers over its 22 year life.

I first heard music by the astonishing New York-based composer and polymath, Lera Auerbach, when violinist Hilary Hahn released an album of short encore pieces around a decade ago, works commissioned from contemporary composers (including New Zealand's own Gillian Whitehead). Auerbach's Speak, Memory for In 27 Pieces: The Hilary Hahn Encores has a title borrowed from Nabokov and the intriguing four minute work is both beautifully moving and somehow detached and ironic, as if the composer is both creator and observer.

So I was not surprised to be captured by Auerbach’s piano trio This Mirror Has Three Faces, also called Triptych, in the NZ Trio’s recent ‘Unquiet Dream’ programme.

Born in Soviet Russia in 1973, as a piano prodigy Auerbach first performed with orchestra aged eight, and composed an opera aged 12 that toured in the Soviet Union. When she was 17,  already a multiple piano competition winner, she was invited to tour the US and, after the final concert in New York, apparently refused to get back on the plane. One of the last Soviet artist defectors, the multi-talented Auerbach enrolled at the Juilliard School in composition and piano, and has remained in New York ever since, acclaimed for her pianism and compositions, and also winning praise as a sculptor and awards for her literary work in Russian and English.

This Mirror Has Three Faces was composed in 2011, and, though described as a triptych, has five movements, some linked without a break. The composer takes us on a wild and unpredictable ride, through dark moods, dreamy fantasies, ironic ambiguities and fast-changing musical styles.

Sobbing strings and rolling piano chords shift to little jazzy fragments over pizzicato strings, a wonky little waltz slips into hints of cabaret, melodies flavoured with “wrong-note” Shostakovich become ironically sliding pitches. Sometimes the strings have an almost vocal quality, sometimes they howl like wolves.

NZ Trio - adventurous programme curation

(from left) Amalia Hall (violin), Sarah Watkins (piano), Ashley Brown (cello)

Image credit: Chris Watson

In the fast 4th movement, Tell’em What You See, Amalia Hall’s dazzling violin takes off in a speedy race, chased first by Ashley Brown on cello and then pianist Sarah Watkins. It’s exhilarating stuff, the composer seeming to exhort us to “keep up!” as she throws in sardonic snatches of what may be popular tunes. All slows for the romantic and nostalgic final Adagio, but Auerbach keeps us guessing with fierce and strange interruptions, her tongue firmly in her cheek. We feel more than a little intoxicated. The extended ending reminded me of a party whose guests don’t want to leave, pianist collapsing over the keys as if saying “we should stop, but we’re having too much fun.”

[If you’re tempted to explore, video of Auerbach’s Triptych is available on line, from its world premiere with the composer at the piano. The link is below.]

The NZ Trio’s well-constructed programme also included a world premiere by New Zealand composer Chris Cree Brown. Called The Second Triumvirate, the title makes reference to his earlier work for the Trio in 2009, The Triumvirate. Cree Brown, in his programme note, writes of musical discussions and arguments, and the piece has an agitated, restless quality, almost improvisatory at times. Musical fragments and rapidly falling and rising gestures are passed around the players, ideas often repeated, phrases similar but never quite the same, three interpretations of an idea.

Composer Chris Cree Brown

“… a clever and effective illustration of chamber music’s conversational approach.”

Anchors between the musicians are provided by sustained pitches. Moods shift, occasionally more peaceful, and finally, after a rapid scrambling ascent in strings, the music settles and fades out with long high notes. It’s a clever and effective contemporary illustration of one of chamber music’s essential qualities, the close relationships and interchanges between players that give their musical conversations spice and meaning.

The concert opened with a work written by Benjamin Britten when he was just 18, after several fruitful years of study with English composer Frank Bridge. This Introduction and Allegro is the work of a young composer exploring the piano trio medium and finding his own voice. The initial harmonies from lovely piano flourishes could be described as “impressionist”, an effect needing, perhaps, a more liquid approach from Watkins at the piano. The Allegro section is energetic and a little spiky, but again I found the piano too percussive, reminding me of Debussy’s injunction to play “as if it had no hammers”. The engaging piece finally drifts up into the ether for its conclusion, with high string harmonics and the piano at the top of the keyboard.

After three works new to many in the audience, NZ Trio chose to end their programme with Felix Mendelssohn’s lovely and familiar Piano Trio in d minor Opus 49. With beautifully singing string playing, the musicians found the poetry in this melodious music. Watkins’ rather brisk approach worked best in the puckish Scherzo; she has impressive facility at the keyboard and all three musicians showed their virtuosity in this fast and sprightly movement. Led by Hall’s soaring romanticism, the passionate Finale then carried the audience with it, Brown’s cello tone full and lovely and Watkins finding the tender legato the melodies demand.

NZ Trio

“…showing their virtuosity in Mendelssohn.”

Image supplied

The NZ Trio takes to the road again in September for Triptych 2: Untrodden Ways and in October/November for Triptych 3: Untamed Hope. More information here. Mark your diary for more adventures in chamber repertoire new and old.

NZ Trio Triptych 1: ‘Unquiet Dream’ Music by Britten, Cree Brown, Auerbach and Mendelssohn Wellington May 22, 2024

This Mirror Has Three Faces by Lera Auerbach World Premiere performance 2012 here