This programme offers a chance to hear one of the biggest names on the world stage, Viktoria Mullova, perform cornerstones of the repertoire. Mullova has appeared with most of the world’s greatest orchestras and conductors, and is known the world over as a violinist of exceptional versatility and musical integrity. She is joined by husband Matthew Barley and New Zealand's Stephen De Pledge in performing one of the greatest trios in the repertory, Schubert’s Trio in E flat – “Heavenly lengths” as Schumann would later describe, a “Trio by Schubert passed across the musical world like some angry comet in the sky.”
Then, 'Mono No Aware', a new work for cello and piano by New Zealand composer Salina Fisher, commissioned by Chamber Music New Zealand.
The concert finishes with one of the greatest trios written in the 20th century, and here Ravel draws inspiration from outside the European tradition. Looking to Basque dances and Malaysian poetry, he draws together these elements with a technical perfection which is both fascinating and heart-rending.
SCHUBERT: Piano Trio No 2 in Eb, D929
Written just a year before his death when Schubert was gravely ill with syphilis and depression, the trio traverses a whole range of emotions but the one that pervades is joy.
Viktoria Mullova, Matthew Barley, Stephen De Pledge Photo: supplied
Recorded by RNZ Concert, Auckland Concert Chamber, 16 March 2019
Producer: Tim Dodd; Sound Engineer: Rangi Powick
Salina FISHER: Mono No Aware
Inspired by the melancholic contemplation of the transience of existence.
Introduced by Matthew Barley
Salina Fisher Photo: Hagen Hopkins
Mono No Aware is a Japanese concept that refers to the transience of existence and the melancholic appreciation that accompanies that.
New Zealand composer Salina Fisher took inspiration from the concept in response to a commission from Chamber Music New Zealand for a work especially for this concert.
Recorded by RNZ Concert, Auckland Concert Chamber, 16 March 2019
Producer: Tim Dodd; Sound Engineer: Rangi Powick
RAVEL: Piano Trio in A minor
Ravel's only piano trio is an exotic blend of Spanish and Asian influences.
Performed by the Mullova Trio: Viktoria Mullova (violin), Matthew Barley (cello), Stephen De Pledge (piano)
Viktoria Mullova, Matthew Barley, Stephen De Pledge Photo: supplied
Ravel wrote this piano trio in 1914 and he was in a hurry to enlist for the war.
The music is a little dreamlike, but also quite exotic. The first movement is inspired by Basque folk music – in particular, according to Ravel, the zortziko dance; the second, titled ‘Pantoum’, by a form of Malayan poetry featuring repeating lines – a form that some French poets of the 19th century favoured.
The third movement is a stately Passacaglia, but it too has a certain Asian quality to it. And in the fourth it feels like we’ve returned to the Basque country, or perhaps to Spain itself.
Recorded by RNZ Concert, Auckland Concert Chamber, 16 March 2019
Producer: Tim Dodd; Sound Engineer: Rangi Powick
