{TABLE} Soldier's Tale Suite ............... Stravinsky Four Pieces Op 5 ................... Berg Piano Trio in A minor .............. Ravel {/TABLE} ALTHOUGH the Haenjo Trio did not play any pieces by the eponymous Haenjo, the programme included another instalment of his shy career as he snaked his way in and out of European musical life in the first half of this century. The allegation that he was in a way an accessory to the death of Alban Berg should make this programme a collector's item.
Kenneth Rice (violin), Michael Seaver (clarinet) and Reamonn Keary (piano) played Stravinsky's own arrangement of the music for A Soldier's Tale with the dry exactitude of a mechanical music machine, making it sound like a precursor of minimalism. The interpretation would probably have delighted the composer.
A complete contrast was provided by the languorous lines of Berg's Four Pieces for clarinet and piano. These look back to the full flood of romanticism and Michael Seaver shaped the lines with such grace that these miniatures seemed to say as much as a whole symphonic movement by Brahms.
For the final item in Sunday's midday concert in the Hugh Lane Gallery Kenneth Rice and Reamonn Keary were joined by Niall O'Loughlin (cello). Ravel's Piano Trio is one of the most sensuously beautiful works in the repertoire and this was particularly evident in the slow movement but at other times I felt that the ensemble was emphasising the rhythmic drive at the expense of the subtleties of tone colour.
