MONDAY night's Cottier Chamber Project concert, featuring three of this country's finest and best-known artists – chamber pianist extraordinaire, Alasdair Beatson; violinist Alexander Janiczek, renowned for his work across the genres, from soloistic to chamber and orchestral work; and Philip Higham, simply one of the best cellists ever produced in this land – brought with it a number of questions.
Here they are, wrapped up.
Can anyone tell me when they last heard Schubert's Second Piano Trio sound so succinct and cogent, with neither a note too far nor an expression or structure too stretched? I can't. It's a huge work, and in an hour-long Cottier concert, it required the full concert time allocation. On top of that, a performance has to confront perceptions of the passing of time. Bluntly, the finale can last forever, evoking the old canard about Schubert's "heavenly length".
All of that, including myriad issues of structure, just dissolved in the hands of these three masters. The music just flowed: they held in those hands and heads the secret of momentum: not speed, not pace, not force, not power and not projection. It was that other secret – of like minds applied democratically to a series of issues. Beatson once described his role to me as "guardian of the textures". Under that guardianship Janiczek and Higham soared and seared.
It was a great, great performance, and I could write an essay on it. But let me tell you one last thing I learned, late on Monday night. That performance was apparently the first time the three of them had played together as a trio. Astonishing. Thinking caps on, promoters, I suggest, for a supergroup- in-waiting.
Music
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