Amalia Hall, Ashely Brown and Somi Kim can reflect on a triumphant 2019. Photo / Gareth Badger
The final instalment of NZTrio's Tectonicseries confirmed that the group's 2019 line-up of Amalia Hall, Ashley Brown and Somi Kim is a winner.
Nothing was held back in a concert that, once again, paired New Zealand and British composers with a musical confrontation of Russian and American superpowers.
Just when
one was becoming weary of the cute Frank Bridge miniatures sprinkled throughout the Tectonic playlists, here they sat alongside more substantial fare.
While a deft completion of unfinished Elgar was invested with an appropriately late romantic glow, two contemporary works dealt out welcome astringencies.
Charlotte Bray's That Crazed Smile easily entrapped us in its spidery sonic web; it was a timely choice, with its composer receiving two Ivor Novello Awards in London this month.
Ashley Brown, introducing the issue of colonial conflict, described Samuel Holloway's Stapes as a lone soldier from New Zealand putting up a mighty fight.
