Was the image of a fire-extinguisher on the NZ Trio's programme a warning? Would there be hot times in the usually cool environs of the University Music Theatre?
Jack Body's Fire in the Belly proved a tightly-woven ball of nervy intensity, all repeated notes and distressed sul ponticello,culminating in a tumult of overlapping scales. It was a test of precision playing which the musicians passed with flying timbres.
Ross Harris' Senryu was introduced as "organised chaos", a restless toccata buoyed by jagged melody. Harris caught our ears from the opening, a sinuous piano melody accompanied by balalaika-like plucking on strings, and never let go of them.
We had been given our "hot and spiky Kiwi appetisers", cellist Ashley Brown informed us, and these would soon be available online; now it was time for more trad repertoire in the form of Chausson's Piano Trio.
This was a fruity feast. Justine Cormack and Brown pursued Chausson's many dialogues with ardour against Sarah Watkins' sumptuous piano stylings. After the interval, Turina's First Piano Trio was strong on mood and atmosphere. Cormack and Brown's violin and cello, in duet, indicated we were in for an authoritative performance; Watkins affirmed it with an often languid balance of chords and line.
Paul Schoenfield's Cafe Music falls into the "let-your-hair-down" genre of composition and its first movement proved to be an agreeable slice of showy ragtime.
One marvelled at the vivacity of the musicians' playing and, throughout the entire piece, Watkins triumphed over piano writing that was little short of fiendish.
A second, ballad-like movement, based around Brother can you spare a dime?, saw the lustre tarnishing and, by the finale, one felt frozen in a sea of facetiousness, wondering just how many times the composer would hike up the pitch and try another sprint to the finish line.
Alongside it, the encore was a model of wit and brevity. Jack Body's John Lee's Pluck, a transcription from John Lee Hooker, had Cormack and Brown in energetic Bartok pizzicato against choppy chords from Watkins.
Short, sweet and sassy fires were extinguished and spirits revived.
