KEY POINTS:
Beyond the Pale seems a somewhat daunting title for the NZ Trio's latest touring programme but, on Sunday night, its mixture of contemporary with two of the three "B's" proved just the ticket.
The rest of the country first heard this group in Beethoven's E flat Trio, the composer's Opus 1 no 1, back in 2004.
On Sunday, Justine Cormack, Ashley Brown and Sarah Watkins played with admirable finesse, from the sighing sixths and thirds of Beethoven's opening Allegro through to a dashing Finale that occasionally nodded to Haydn's Hungarian style.
A wending and winding scherzo displayed the fine ensemble playing we have come to expect from the NZ Trio.
At the other end of the evening Brahms' final C minor Trio came across as a performance-in-progress. It certainly set off with a roar and closed energetically but intonation was sometimes uneasy.
Ross Edwards' Piano Trio (1998) is contemporary music at its most approachable from a composer some might know for his score for Bruce Beresford's 1997 movie, Paradise Road.
Even if Cormack seemed slightly tense in its Poco Adagio, it was good once more to experience live her spirited exchanges with Brown in the final movement, and the utter verve of the whole group throughout.
Phil Dadson's new trio, Firestarters, revealed how an unexpected partnership can spark a refreshing concert experience.
A myriad of colours, some drawn from specially modified instruments, combined with pulsating rhythms to take us to Dadson's sonic domain.
Each of Firestarters' five movements outlined its own soundworld. The first had two floor-bound string instruments; in the second, all three players whirred personal fans over their strings, transforming the piano into a cimbalon.
The fourth, with its subtle pitch play and piano bowed a la sarangi, reminded us of Dadson's special interest in Indian culture.
The University of Auckland is fortunate to have this group in its fold and our audiences and composers owe so much to the NZ Trio's unswerving professionalism and devotion to communicating its art.
