BY DYLAN HENDERSON
Homage
Benaud Trio
Elder Hall, The University of Adelaide, 5 March
In April 2015, the influential Australian cricketer and commentator Richie Benaud passed away, leaving lovers of the game to mourn the loss of an internationally respected cultural icon. Ten years earlier, pianist Amir Farid, violinist Lachlan Bramble and cellist Ewen Bramble formed a piano trio in Benaud’s name, and in the same year went on to win the Piano Trio Prize at the Australian Chamber Music Competition.
In the ensuing years, they have risen to become one of the most respected and critically acclaimed chamber ensembles in the country, and this concert was further affirmation of why. Commissioning composer Iain Grandage to write a musical tribute to the voice of many a hot Australian summer, the Benaud Trio provided a rich and intensely rewarding concert experience.
When listening for the first time to Richie – In Memoriam, it is not hard to understand why Grandage is one of Australia’s most commissioned composers. Beginning gingerly with the violin and cello in unison, this was not an exuberant and uplifting commemoration but rather a work of quiet reflection – a meditation on life and death that deserves repeat performances. The Bramble brothers took turns featuring the melodic material, rendered in a beautifully conversational dialogue between violin and cello. As the work intensified, the piano’s role became more animated, moving away from simple block chords to more flowing arpeggiations. Eventually returning to the state in which it began, the work concluded with shimmering tremolos in the strings, while the piano – and the life it represented – gradually faded away. The composer wrote: ‘This memorial work is one of quiet solitude – built around a heartbeat motif which ebbs and flows and finally retires, as he has, and well all do’. This was captured in a stunningly beautiful smorzando from all three musicians, producing an exceptionally poetic opening.
In keeping with the concert’s theme of reflection, the major work of the program was Schubert’s Piano Trio No. 2 in E flat major, D. 929, written as the composer approached the end of a five-year struggle with syphilis. Opening with that characteristic bold statement in unison, the three musicians exhibited an exceptional balance and an exquisite tonal blend. Amir was impressive, with great clarity in the soft impromptu-like textures; whilst successfully navigating the many treacherous scalic passages, including those with thirds, with admirable dexterity. The unpredictability of the movement’s many false endings could have been enhanced by extending the silences to heighten the drama, but this was a minor concern given the trio’s immaculate precision elsewhere.
The ‘Andante con moto’, a funeral procession, was no less compelling. Through the judicious use of vibrato, Ewen captured with brooding solemnity the famous cello theme, arguably the most memorable moment of the work. He was equally convincing when the theme returned in the fourth movement as an ethereal reminiscence, over arpeggiations in the piano and pizzicatos in the violin. Amir’s fingers glided effortlessly across the keyboard, enunciating the many repeated notes with sparkling clarity. Dynamic, edge-of-your-seat playing featured prominently here from all musicians, culminating in an exciting and cohesive finish.
The concert was bookended by Nicholas Buc’s piano trio arrangement of Jimmy Page and Robert Plant’s popular Stairway to Heaven – evidently, a favourite encore piece for the Benaud Trio. Unlike so many arrangements of pop songs, this one did not come wrapped in cliché, and nor did it make you yearn for the original.
All three musicians were completely in their element here. Ewen again impressed in the hauntingly elegiac opening theme, as did Amir, whose iridescent tone generated shivers on more than one occasion. In the triumphant middle section, each musician wrestled to be heard, creating a thrilling contest-like atmosphere that somehow never managed to undermine the overall balance. There were glissandos in the piano, but it was Lachlan who stole the show, with a cadenza-like violin solo providing some welcome fireworks, before a scintillating chromatic ascent propelled the work to its conclusion. An uplifting and touching, end to a wonderful afternoon of chamber music. If you haven’t already heard the Benaud Trio perform, you’re missing out on what is undoubtedly one of the country’s finest chamber ensembles.
Image supplied.
