Prepare for Schubert surprise

By WILLIAM DART


If the Vienna Piano Trio's new CD of Dvorak Trios has not already come your way, it's worth searching out, as it reveals just why this group has established themselves as one of the world's best.

The three men are visiting us for the second time, with their final New Zealand concert in the Town Hall tomorrow night. It has been another whirlwind trip and violinist Wolfgang Redik wistfully ponders how nice it might have been to "spend an afternoon at Milford Sound".

In the meantime, it has been the usual touring schedule of hotels and concert halls, although they have no regrets. There is a musical lilt to his voice when he explains how important it is to commit to the ensemble.

"If you hear three excellent soloists playing Mendelssohn or Shostakovich, it can be very exciting," he says, "but there is so much more to the repertoire, and a trio has to work to find its own sound."

Early studies with the Trio di Trieste were important as they were one of the first professional trios "with a very Italian way of making music - very refined and stylish," says Redik.

But masterclasses in the early 1990s with Isaac Stern revealed alternative tactics.

"It was the first time we had a real taste of the American way of playing which doesn't rely on old traditions.

"It can be so negative to be locked into a tradition."

Stern was brutally direct. "He stopped us playing when we did the 'Ghost'," Redik recalls, with a laugh. " 'Gentlemen,' he said, 'I'm not applauding. Why are you so polite playing to each other? Why does the fiddle player go immediately softer so that people can hear the cello? You have to find another balance so that the people can still hear the cello but the fiddle player can still play fortissimo'."

Redik talks about the trio's Auckland programme as if it were an evening of favourites. Be prepared for a surprise with the opening Sonata movement by Schubert.

"At first you think it is a piece by a very young Schubert, heavily influenced by the strict classical style," Redik explains, "but when you listen to the melodies and how he lets them develop, there is so much of his voice already there."

At first, Redik was hesitant to accept Edward Steuermann's piano trio transcription of Schoenberg's Verklarte Nacht. "I had played in the string orchestra and string sextet versions, and felt the essential colour of the work was in this string sound.

"But the piano trio version has advantages and one is intonation.

"This is ridiculous to say, but even in performances by great players, I've never heard the sextet version played in tune.

"And if a chord is not in tune the whole colour of that chord changes. With the piano this is not an issue."

Redik is happy to offer a New Zealand work, Maria Grenfell's A Feather of Blue. "It's a very good idea putting a local work on the programme, and this one is particularly good for smaller audiences.

"People are often nervous with contemporary music, but I heard people coming out of the Christchurch concert last week saying, 'I was expecting modern music and that wasn't so bad'."

Bad for Redik is crossover. "It's the worst thing," he says. Another pause. "It's just marketing.

"I went to the Virgin megastore in Vienna, quite a flashy shop and not very serious, but well stocked.

"They had a display of 'Great Violinists'. Itzhak Perlman, Anne-Sophie Mutter and then suddenly I see Andre Rieu, Vanessa-Mae! This is terrible!

"Someone who doesn't know could go there and believe it. I find it trash and they should not claim that it is anything else."

Performance

*What: Vienna Piano Trio

*Where and when: Auckland Town Hall, tomorrow 8pm