Three play outside the square

By WILLIAM DART

The New Zealand Trio is thrilled with the response to their Auckland concert a few weeks back. A programme of Arensky, Chausson, Maria Grenfell and Michael Norris filled the University Music Theatre and audience feedback was keen.

Talking with cellist Ashley Brown, the threesome does seem like an ensemble made in heaven. Brown, Sarah Watkins and Justine Cormack first got together for the 2002 New Zealand Festival. "Everything just fitted into place," says Brown. "There was such a level of excitement because we were able to bounce ideas off one another so easily."

All of which has paid dividends in preparing for the Beethoven Triple Concerto which the group plays with the Auckland Philharmonia tomorrow night.

It was pianist Watkins who solved the problem of the transition from the second to third movements. "There are these repeated Gs," Brown explains, "and there has to be a gentle, almost imperceptible change. Sarah suggested we should sing it, and all our problems were solved."

And when it comes to the bigger interpretative picture, he adds, "we all bring our own slant to every little musical phrase".

Watkins has returned to New Zealand from the United States so she can commit to the trio and Cormack has relinquished her post as concertmaster of the Auckland Philharmonia. Brown has done everything from handling the principal cello post with the AP for over two years, to coming up with a solo recital of cutting-edge music for last year's (09)03 festival.

Yet, for all his commitment to the contemporary, it was hearing Truls Mork in the Dvorak Concerto, when Brown was a student at Canterbury University, that firmed his resolve to become a cellist - "I had my heart in my mouth right through the performance".

Overseas study would follow, with Aldo Parisot at Yale and William Pleeth in London, until he came back to join violinist Sam Konise in the Turnovsky Trio. "I didn't realise it was possible to do this wonderful, fun thing, playing chamber music."

Now, with a new ensemble and its affiliation to the University of Auckland, there are new responsibilities. One is teaching and, although in the past this has sometimes been a bread-and-butter necessity, Brown now finds more tangible rewards and inspirations.

Most importantly, he feels the group must try to address the general image of chamber music. "We're aware that there is a perception of chamber music as being a little bit square and fuddy-dud. That's not our experience, or what we get from our audience feedback. The music we play speaks to all sorts of people."

One of the most exciting things the trio have been involved with is the commissioning of local music, and they have just returned from an American tour in which they took John Psathas' Three Island Songs and Victoria Kelly's Sono to enthusiastic audiences.

Their most recent commission, Michael Norris' Dirty Pixels, was an adrenalin-pumping success. Norris deals out "fast and funky" for piano, violin and cello and Brown chortles when I spin this image to him. He pauses for a moment and then recalls how they would "walk down the street humming and slapping the rhythms of the piece. It was kind of fun."

There is more New Zealand music coming up, too. A Rachel Clement work will open their 2005 season while a Triple Concerto by Gareth Farr is just a little further down the track. Gillian Whitehead has also been approached to write a full-scale score for them.

Most excitingly, just a few weeks ago, the three musicians laid down the tracks for their first CD, to be released by Trust Records in the new year. Dirty Pixels is on the line-up and, if we were talking about a different genre of music, it could be a killer single.

Performance

*What: Auckland Philharmonia, with the New Zealand Trio

*Where and when: Aotea Centre, tomorrow 8pm