Beethoven, Shostakovich & Smetana

Shostakovich Piano Trio No. 1 in C minor, Op.8
Beethoven Piano Trio No. 1 in C minor, Op. 1/3
Smetana Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 15

Rosamunde Trio
Martino Tirimo piano
Ben Sayevich violin
Daniel Veis cello

Kings Place London, 6 March 2011

An uncommonly satisfying chamber music concert, with three fine players so completely attuned that one could not feel that one or other was "leading'. Tempi and dynamic adjustments, with a little rubato, were unobtrusively right.

Shostakovich's student Poème is full of dramatic contrasts and was well worth a hearing.

The C minor trio is the most advanced and best of Beethoven's Op 1; it was given as fine a performance as I've ever heard, a degree of reserve fitting for a mature ensemble that does not need to be assertive to stake its claim.

But there were no holds barred or lack of burning intensity in the Smetana, dedicated to the memory of his little daughter, with a tender cello elegy which is transformed into a funeral march. It is one of my personal favourites in the entire repertoire, not played too often; this account fully matched my memory of it from the Guarneri Trio Prague (live at Blackheath & on Supraphon 11 1515-2).

A great evening with the London Chamber Music Society.

Peter Grahame Woolf