When an internationally renowned chamber ensemble travels all the way from Vienna-the birthplace of classical salon music-for a show, one expects great things. Unfortunately, the crowd that packed Walter Hall last Thursday caught the Vienna Piano Trio on an off day, and the musical result, while professionally executed, was something short of magical.
The Trio made their Toronto debut as part of the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto’s Music in the Afternoon series, and combined chamber standards by Mozart and Schumann with a modern work by Rebecca Clarke.
Contrary to what comes to mind, a piano trio is not, in fact, three pianos (though this concert would have been more interesting if it were). There was, of course, a piano, played with proficiency but little feeling by Stefan Mendl. Wolfgang Rednik brought some real expressiveness to the violin parts, but cellist Matthias Gredler was quite ineffectual at times, almost fading out of memory until a particularly loud note brought him back into the audience’s consciousness.
Music for piano trio is not usually intense stuff; it’s written for breezy afternoons in the salon-and the cozy setting of the Faculty of Music’s small auditorium was perfect. But in the absence of raw emotion, there have to be some playful, poignant moments to keep the music from getting banal and formulaic, and the trio didn’t come up with many.
Mozart’s Piano Trio in B Flat Major is a light, fluffy work, but this rendition lacked the sparkle that would have made it satisfying. Violinist Rednik did his best to bring out Mozart’s cheeky side, but without musical backup from his comrades, the sound fell flat.
Mendl looked pleased to be there, but his listless playing suggested otherwise. He played the trills and runs-technical ornaments that usually lend brilliance to Mozart’s straightforward music-in a detached, perfunctory manner that lacked a shimmering quality. By the time cellist Gredler woke up to add something of value to the third movement, it was too late to save this dynamically challenged warm-up.
Clarke’s moody 1921 Piano Trio was a musically interesting piece, and one that the Trio had more success with. Gredler did a good job of varying the cello’s tone colour throughout the impressionistic opening, and the early section of the second movement was this group at its most emotionally involved. But the piece lacked that sinister edge that would have taken this murky work from passable to impressive. Though the Trio is often praised for its communication, the group lacked a sense of naturalness and had to fight through several shaky entrances.
A strong start to Robert Schumann’s Piano Trio No. 1 in D Minor gave reason to hope that the Trio had finally realized this was the actual concert and not a run-through, but they soon slipped back into their placid style. This was a nice piece, but several musical moments that should have been great were robbed by the lifeless playing. A lack of dramatic conclusiveness also marred the endings of each movement throughout.
The encore was a tiny, tasty morsel of Schubert that they at last pulled off quite nicely-perhaps it took a composer from home to awaken their musical sensibilities. But that nice dessert couldn’t hide the lack of a main course, and the audience left the hall hungry.
