The family trio of piano, violin and cello, that is the Vienna Mozart Trio, delighted a capacity audience in the Large Room with virtuoso playing of a high order. The opening pieces; a Rachmaninov elegy and a Shostakovich Trio No. 1 in C major, has too much sadness and winter in them for that touch of spring but the second half Schubert trio was excellent and crowd-pleasing.
It is sad that the Waterford Music 66th Season came to an end but what a finale it turned out to be. The pianist, Irina Belanskaja-Auner spoke to the audience to introduce the recital and the opening Rachmaninov elegy set the tone with a noisy piano yielding to a sad cello while the violin wailed before a stirring mix of passion and dramatic intent as the violin outdid the cello and the piano was insistent and urgent. The violin work of Daniel Auner, at 21, was amazing before the piano tolled out a grim ending.
The Shostakovich trio was equally sad with discordant piano notes and violin aches as Diethard Auner on cello made warbling sounds that reverberated like a song on the winter air. The violin was as jerky as a bumble bee with plucked notes into a wild pizzicato feel and the closing Prestissimo Fantastico was all of that – fantastic and wildly expressive.
After the internal the Schubert was an energetic treat with a great dynamic and intuitive understanding from this family. The Sherzando was light and expressive and the closing Allegro Moderato was lyrical and lovely with great swirls of tuneful melodic music.
A Mozart Adagio was a fine encore piece and a great end to a memorable concert.
