The Brunswick Uniting Church was the perfect venue for the sixth concert in this year’s Brunswick Beethoven Festival, an evening of chamber music featuring Melbourne’s own Firebird Trio, with Benjamin Martin (piano), Curt Thompson (violin) and Josephine Vains (cello).
The Trio, aptly introduced by Festival Director Mark Higginbotham as “a cracker of a trio”, played an eclectic program. It opened with a surprise work by Beethoven. It turned out to be the third movement from Beethoven’s second trio in the opus 70 set, the companion piece to “The Ghost”. It’s a gentle and charming piece woven around a simple cantabile theme, the warm tone of the gorgeous Shigeru Kawai grand.
Then followed a trio by the twentieth century Italian composer, Alfredo Casella, based on a trio by his compatriot, Muzio Clementi. These days Clementi, a contemporary of Mozart, is probably best known for his sonatinas, which turn up with (dare I say it) monotonous regularity on the piano syllabus. His output was prodigious (with over one hundred sonatas), but Clementi was far more than a study-generator; he was well-respected by Beethoven and Chopin, amongst others. This trio was composed in 1936, by which time Casella, a graduate of the Paris Conservatoire, had conducted the Boston Pops, earned a reputation as a virtuosic pianist and, with the Trio Italiano, carved out a successful performing career in Europe and America.
This re-working of Clementi’s trio is a curious mix of classical and contemporary 1930s styles. Each of the three movements – Allegro amabile, Polonese and Rondo – began, predictably enough, with familiar-sounding melodies in the classical style. But as the movement progressed, an unexpected harmonic progression or a strange melodic twist would send it briefly “off course”. These occasional break-out moments added spice – and possibly also humour – to Firebird’s performance.
Benjamin Martin’s arrangement of two of Benjamin Britten’s Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes – “Dawn” and “Storm” – established an entirely different mood: “Dawn” portentous, conveying peace and depth; “Storm”, as expected, a turbulent experience, the music churning as the musicians dug deep for resonances that splintered the air. The arrangements were very effective; not in any way did this version fall short of the original’s musicality.
The major work on this program was Ravel’s Piano Trio. Written in 1914, it premiered in Paris in January 1915 with … Alfredo Casella at the piano. And, another interesting connection revealed at Firebird’s performance: it seems that the Melbourne (and probably Australian) premiere of Ravel’s Trio was performed by the virtuosic Spivakovsky brothers’ trio during an Australian tour in the 1930s.
The opening is contemplative, but it quickly gains momentum, before evolving into another, even more serene, moment. As the movement grew, the violin and cello blended superbly with the bubbling piano accompaniment.
The second movement is entitled “Pantoum”, a Malaysian form of poetry based on interlocking rhyming four-line stanzas. It is marked “Assez vif”, and Firebird Trio delivered the contrasting lyrical and bouncy themes with panache, displaying a tasteful blend of sparkle and energy.
The mood changed abruptly in the third movement, a Passacaille. Benjamin Martin, curled into the keyboard, sensitively coaxed Ravel’s hauntingly deep, penetrating melody from the highly responsive Kawai. Gradually the theme unfolded, with the strings adding their resonance.
The final movement, marked “Anime”, is quintessential Ravel: energetic, with a surging energy that builds and releases in a cascading series of climaxes. We were treated to captivating melodies, moments of expansive pianism, intense trills from the strings, all imbued with effervescence and dynamism.
The whole concert was flawless; but it was the Ravel in particular – exquisite music impeccably performed – that triggered a long and enthusiastic ovation.
Photo supplied.
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Sue Kaufmann attended The Firebird Trio recital, given as part of The Brunswick Beethoven Festival at Brunswick Uniting Church on February 19, 2025.
