A vital performance

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34106, 19 March 1976, Page 14

A vital performance

There was a large attendance — as, indeed, there should have been —for a recital given yesterday in the James Hay Theatre by Peter Frankl, pianist, Gyorgy Pauk, violinist, and Ralph Kirshbaum, cellist. They played Beethovens

“Archduke” Piano Trio in B flat, Op. 97. It began in the grand manner with sumptuous decoration, as found in a princely house of the period. Nobody who heard this performance is likely to forget it or cease to be grateful that he was present. Interesting and complicated sounds, which must have presented problems in balance when in rehearsal, came in glorious profusion. The vitality of the performance of the first movement carried on into the Scherzo, where an impish liveliness, as well as a seasoned sense of fun. took over with exuberance.

Mr Frankl’s piano playing seemed to have perfection of control, with every required call for power or for the gentlest delicacy of touch ready at instant and facile demand. In parts of this work much vigorous and heavy playing was called for. Sudden sforzandi and long crescendi passages leading to overwhelming climaxes were brought forth without the faintest sign of distortion or loss of quality of sound. Everything was intended and nothing was as it should not have been. Throughout a long work his clarity of direction and the finer points of less and more never strayed for an instant. The shape of the work, and its innermost meaning, were

never in doubt in the work of all three players. Mr Pauk played his violin with a shining clarity and with perfection of civilised and acutely judged tonal values. All his playing came from the inner meaning of the music, and he is an artist whose interpretations come from well beyond the printed page.

Of Mr Kirshbaum s cello playing it is not possible to speak too highly. In everything he has played to us, his tone, his control, and his smooth conveying of the essence of the music has been an outpouring of the heart of the matter, and most rewarding to receive and To remember. Both string players, in this work, gave ■us long passages of heavy tonal weight, and did so without distortion or loss of quality.

The last movement came like the crack of a thunderbolt and raced away in whirling exuberance. Like a whirlwind it carried all before it. but unlike that piece of bad taste on Nature’s part it left behind nothing but smiles and the warmest appreciation. —C. Foster Browne.