Last week, Waterford Music had a world class concert with the much travelled and acclaimed, Trio Di Parma and at times it was an exquisite experience, in The Large Room.
Opening with the student work of Shostakovich, the Piano Trio No. 1, was a melancholy start to a fine evening’s enjoyment. The cello was sad and the music took on an atonal quality, until the deep emotive tones of the cello took the work into a small frenzy of lyrical music. The instruments seemed to overlap in a lonely old place and at its most lyrical, there was a feeling of a lot more instruments playing. A wonderful feeling.
Beethoven’s The Ghost followed and I had recently heard this trio’s work of the Archduke and my expectation was rewarded. Named by a pupil of Beethoven, it is allegedly about the ghost in Hamlet, but at that time Beethoven was considering an opera baked on Shakespeare’s Macbeth. The violin work was quick, energetic and passionate. A Largo had a haunting opening, as the cello wept. The piano was loud, insistant and pounding, like the axeman intended, and it was exquisite and beautiful.
A nine-minute Presto, was a delight, a Haagen Daz or Ben and Jerry’s, after a virtuoso feast.
Usually after a bash of Beethoven, I feel sated and content but the Ravel Trio in A minor (1914) was a wonderful experience. Ravel had Basque parents and the opening Modere was a typical Basque dance with passionate and mellow moods. This piece has been used in a 1992 French film, A Heart In Winter.
The work is technical and expressive, with complex trills, clissandos, arpeggios and tremolos and the Phantoum was a dream. The third movement, Passacaille, was baroque in expression with wonderful tender violin work and resonant piano to close out the movement.
A Finale of flutter of strings and a triumphant burst of musical energy.
Trio Do Parma are Alberto Miodini (piano), Ivan Rabaglia (violin) and Enrico Bronzi (cello).
