Beauty and the sisterhood

By WILLIAM DART

Erika Nickrenz, the leggy blonde pianist with the New York-based Eroica Trio, says they had a "fantastic" time on their Australian tour.

One Melbourne audience was "hootin' and hollerin' and we did three encores, with some Piazzolla that just set the place on fire".

Whether an Auckland audience will let loose with approbatory hollers will not be known until next Monday night. I doubt it. We're not so used to chamber music in the showbiz lane, although Nickrenz seemingly has no problems with the concept, or with the sort of marketing that some might see as more appropriate for cosmetics.

"When the audience sit down and close their eyes, hopefully they'll be transported by the music."

Music was a lifeline for Nickrenz, who was playing Mozart Piano Concertos at the age of 11.

"As an only child with a divorced family, I was naturally on the insecure side," she confides. "Being a performer gave me an identity that helped me. Being on stage gave me accolades and helped to turn me into a more secure, successful person."

One gathers that Nickrenz, violinist Adela Pena and cellist Sara Sant' Ambrogio now give each other as much emotional support as they do countermelodies and cross-rhythms.

"We've gone through so much over the past 17 years. Hormones, adolescence, marriages and babies - you name it, we've been through the lot. We're very much like sisters."

Do these women who have made their name in a male-dominated business include many women composers in their programmes? On Monday they will perform a piece by "the youngest woman composer we've ever played", Nickrenz says.

Jenny Thomas' September Scars won Chamber Music New Zealand's SOUNZ Award last year and the pianist is delighted.

"This young lady was so moved by events that were so close to us. She's put a lot of thought into it and I admire the simplicity. She hasn't tried to embellish and it's very effective."

The pianist is eager to run through the rest of Monday's fare. She laughs at the mention of Beethoven's Kakadu Variations because, "The Australian presenters thought it was an Aboriginal name. It means cockatoo in German."

The leap from this to the searing E minor Trio by Shostakovich would daunt some but Nickrenz says big jumps are typical of their programmes.

Concert-goers can expect a full emotional workout.

"You really go through the wringer. All of your emotions are hanging out. Physically you're dripping with sweat and crying. It's so hard to play anything after it that I feel like packing it in and flopping down on my hotel bed."

Fear not, the women will return after interval and restore balance with Dvorak's Dumky Trio, which Nickrenz smoothly summarises as "romantic, soulful passion, written in bite-sized pieces all sewn together, switching from tragedy to happiness on the turn of a dime".

The trio's recordings have been praised and Nickrenz warns that as the last couple have been more traditional, such as Brahms and Beethoven, they wanted to do something "totally offbeat".

She admits their Baroque album was, "Kind of brazen and got some criticism, but this music is just ... beautiful".

And beauty counts.

We talk classic trios and Nickrenz puts Stern, Rose and Istomin at the top for "the beautiful sound, the earnestness and the romanticism".

"I yearn for some of that old-fashioned playing. It has become more technically oriented now and the days when you could hear one measure and know who was playing are gone."

Performance

* What: The Eroica Trio

* Where & when: Auckland Town Hall Monday 8pm