Trio in C minor, Op 1 No 3 - Beethoven
Notturno D897 - Schubert
Mushrooming - Elaine Agnew
Suite of Romances, Op 127 - Shostakovich
The stylish, intelligent singing of the Dutch soprano Judith Mok was one of the strengths of last Thursday night's concert at the Coach House, Dublin Castle. She and the Irish Piano Trio were giving the fourth concert in a Music Network/ESB tour.
Michael d'Arcy (violin), Annette Cleary (cello) and Dearbhla Collins (piano) presented the first half of this concert. In the outer movements of Beethoven's Trio in C minor, Op 1 No 3, control of detail was not always impeccable, but all four movements had defined character and were enjoyable. The slow movement was notable for its apt range of colour and pacing.
Elaine Agnew's Mushrooming was commissioned for this tour. Its involvement with the detail of Chris Agee's poem defeats episodic setting by reworking and extending material into different contexts. Agnew's ideas are characteristically communicative without being obvious. The failure to provide a printed copy of the poem caused problems. But even so, the performance was vivid and persuasive.
Shostakovich wrote his Suite of Romances nine years before his death in 1975. Alexander Blok's poems speak of love, but never quite dispel the darkness of their striking imagery; and the music has the brooding concentration of some of the composer's late quartets. It is astonishingly economical: several songs consist of just a declamatory vocal part and a single line on one instrument.
This remarkable music got the performance it deserved, and Judith Mok was outstanding. She made a completely different sound from the Agnew, full of the deep-hued colours and rounded attack one associates with Russian singers.
Tour continues to Naas tonight, Letterkenny tomorrow, Ballymena on Tuesday, Ballymoneyon Wednesday, Omagh on Thursday and Armagh on Friday. Phone 01-6719429 for details