PERFECT CHAMBER MUSIC

Evening Post, Volume CXXI, Issue 16, 20 January 1936, Page 5

PERFECT CHAMBER MUSIC

SPIVAKOVSKY-KURTZ TRIO

The Spivakovsky-Kurtz instrumental trio needed no introduction to the receptive and appreciative audience which greeted them in the Town Hall Concert Chamber on Saturday on the occasion of the first of the two concerts which are being given in Wellington! Apart from not being strangens to New Zealand, this trio' has achieved world-wide fame during recelit years, and their playing has become familiar to thousands, through the medium of records and radio, honce it was with pleasurable expectancy that Saturday night's audience awaited the opening of the concert, anticipating hearing the very best in the way of chamber music. Expectations were more than fully realised, and riot one of those present could have been in the slightest disappointed with the trio as such or with the members of the trio as solo instrumentlaists. It wae soon obvious that the praise bestowed upon the performers by critics in the leading musical centres has not bean one whit more than deserved. All thai Saturday night's audience, could do was to endorse by prolonged applause the verdict of the rest of the world. The major interest of the programme centred in the playing or Maurice Ravel's "Trio." This composer of the modern French school is given to bold experiments in harmony, arid'in this brilliant work of his this feature is well marked. At first hearing the complexity of cross-rhythms makes it somewhat difficult to follow, although the discerning cannot fail to recognise the brilliance of the scoring. Only a trio like that composed of Jascha Spivakovsky, Tossy Spivakovsky, and Edmund Kurtz could glide over the innumerable technical difficulties that abound throughout th,e four movements, and the interpretation they gave was one of amazing vitality and insight. To analyse such a work in a brief notice of this description is manifestly impossible. It must suffice to say that at the conclusion the audience was spell-bound, and although their applause was both prolongeoV and.insistent it was in reality an inadequate way of expressing appreciation. The remainder of the programme was devoted to solo items by three members of the trio. Tossy Spivakovsky, the violinist, provided some solid sustenance in Corelli's "La Folia, and one could not help wondering whether in two or three hundred years' time Maurilce Ravel's works will be still played' as Corelli's are today nearly three hundred years after his oma. The dramatic colouring of "La Folia was amazingly emphasised by the soloist, who followed this item with Bach s "Prelude and Fugue in G Minor,' another work abounding in depth and sonority. Bach was also drawn upon for the; encore number. After the interval Edmund Kurtz played Haydn s "Violoncello Concerto in D Major, a work of three movements with a cadenza by Pablo Casals, under whom Edmund Kurtz at one time studied. For sheer brilliance this item could hardly ihave been surpassed, and special mention must be made of Mr. Noel Newson for his piano accompaniment—He was accompanist for all tne solo items. The 'cellist was not allowed to retire until he had responded with- two encore numbers, which were "Requibros" (Gassado) and the Rimsky-Korsakoff "Flight of the Bumble! Bee." The half-dozen or so pianofoiH-e solos played by Jascha Spivakovsky were yet another perfect musical treat. Two typical Schumann compositions, "Arabesque. Op. 18" and 'Traumeswirrcn.' were followed 'by the perfectly charming Gluck-Brahms "Gavotte." The Brahms "Capriccio in B Minor" seemed to lead up naturally to Chopin's "Etude in C Minor Op. 25. No. 12." which' latter was played with astounding dynamic onerpv More Chopin and a brilliant Mendelssohn scherzo were included m the encore numbers. A second, concert of ideal chamber music is to be presented tonight and Sis-will be the last opportunity of hearing this famous and gifted trio. At tonight's concert -the .trio to -be played is that by Mendelssohn in D Minor (Op. 49), other features of the programme being Locatelli's cello Sonata in D Major.' the Beet; hoven pianoforte sonata Les Aaicuv and an interesting group of classical and modern violin solos.