CHAMBER MUSIC RECITAL

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26395, 13 April 1951, Page 3

CHAMBER MUSIC RECITAL

TRIOS BY MOZART AND BEETHOVEN

One is constantly surprised when listening to the lunch-time recitals tn the Canterbury University College Hall at the numbers of fine musicians living in Christchurch. Yesterday’s recital was a case in point. The names of Romola Griffiths (violin) and Noel Cape-Williamson (’cello) are known to me, but yesterday was the first time one had heard Maisie McNair, a pianist of outstanding merit. What is more, these three musicians haVe combined into a trio capable oi performing music of great beauty which Christchurch audiences have not had the opportunity of hearing for some time. After this new trio’s performance at yesterday's lunch-time recital of a Mozart and a Beethoven work, both demanding technical skill and high musicianship, one only hopes that these three instrumentalists will! continue to play together and fill the I much-fe t need of a piano trio in Christchurch. The 1 rio in B flat, K 234, by Mozart, I which was played first, is an early' work resemb.ing a divertimento. The! violin had the field practically to itself | in the first movement, with piano andi 'cello substantially doubling in the bass part. The middle movement, an i adagio, was both the most deeply-felt j and best worked-out section of this appealing work, which concluded with! a thriLing rondo-minuet. The second work on the programme, Beethoven’s Trio in 'C minor, op. 1,1 No. 3, dates from Beethoven's student! days in Vienna when he had come thoroughly under the influence of Haydn and C. P. E. Bach. The good construction of this work is doubtless! a result of Haydn’s example, while for I its style it is indebted to Emanuel Each. In spite of its low opus number,! this trio is not a raw work. Beeth-I oven had written .much before publishing the Opus I set of Lichnowski fries, which can hold their own with any light chamber music. The fiery opening movement of the C minor trio led to an extended set ot variations written with much skill A minuet and brilliant finale rounded off this engaging work. The balance among the instruments was well distribmed in this composition, and made of it a more truly characteristic chamber work than the Mozart trio. It also gave the players more chance to show their ability. The tone was nearly always good, though the vi6lin in some passages appeared rather tolourless.. The phrasing left nothing to be desired, and the whole conception of the performance of both Mozart and Beethoven had a noble quality. —H.S.K.K.