Trio in B flat K502 - Mozart
Piano Trio in E minor - Shostakovich
Trio in E flat D929 - Schubert
The Moscow Piano Trio ended its tour of Ireland with an outstanding, stylish concert at the Irish Museum of Modern Art on Sunday afternoon. In one of the three items on the programme, Shostakovich's Piano Trio in E minor, it was hard to imagine that any performance of this piece could be more penetrating. The music's wide-ranging character was explored with a flair for colour and timing which was startling and revelatory. And it was revelatory because, throughout Shostakovich's sometimes-puzzling mix of extremity and subtlety, every gesture was imbued with meaning.
That performance swept away the uneasy impression left by Mozart's Trio in B flat, K. 502. Although there was little obvious fault in the playing, there was no real character in it either. It seemed generalised, as if it was equally suitable to a host of other classical pieces.
The opening notes of the concert's second half showed that the Moscow Piano Trio was not going to take a similar approach to Schubert's Trio in E flat, D. 929. This very long piece was treated with an almost symphonic breadth and depth, and the dangers inherent in that - in particular the temptation to over-inflate and force Schubert's subtle expression - were flawlessly side-stepped. The performance was impeccably scaled within this approach and for this venue.
