Seraphim Trio
Church of the Resurrection
Sunday 11 March 2018
If I believed in hell I’d be worried at saying this but the
bushfires that ripped through Macedon in 1983 did one good thing. They cleared
the block for the construction of a superb new building: The Church of the
Resurrection. The building has a billion* dollar Leonard French stained glass
window and acoustics that are absolutely ideal for chamber music.
Add the Seraphim Trio and you have a world-standard
concert. And the delight is that it’s all tucked away in a tiny Anglican
church, capacity about 150, in a tiny town 60km from The Smoke.
The building has a red brick floor, timber and glass walls
and a soaring, multi-faceted timber roof. It’s the roof that reflects the sound
across and out so that a piano trio sounds like a sextet – at least. On Sunday
it had to deal with an unusually good concert grand, three
international-standard concert musicians and a program that, to quote Tim
Cello, evolved over the three trios of the afternoon to become superbly
cello-esque.
That beautiful timber roof immediately fell in love with
Tim’s cello. It was very, very respectful of Anna’s piano. It simply sparkled at
the thought of Helen’s violin. Make that two of each as the acoustics of the
ceiling played with the sound and we had a mini piano concerto.
The program began with some (at first glance) light-hearted
Mozart written in 1786 when he was 30. It was cast as a trio but it was really
piano (or piano ancestor) with a couple of strings. This was Anna’s first and
final chance at being lead instrument so she grabbed it with both hands
(sorry!) and made it sparkle. Anna was clearly able to get into young Wolfgang’s
head.
Ten years later, in 1797, young (he was 27) Beethoven wrote a
piano trio, his first, that makes a mockery of the ‘this is serious stuff and
it must be played in white tie and tails; no smiling’ syndrome. In it, the
strings are beginning to put the piano in its place as equal rather than
superior instrument. Could the trio let their hair down enough to find the
working-class humour in the last movement: nine variations on "Pria ch'io l'impegno" or, prosaically,
"Before I go to work I need to get some tucker into me.” (fair enough)
Yes, they could! This is a group who knows (Helen summarised the idea in the
introduction) they are not front and centre; it’s not even the place for the
composer; it’s the place for the music. At some point in the variations of the
tune whistled in the lanes, a cockatoo (aptly name Cacatua) screeched. It wasn’t out of place.
 |
| Helen had heard Anne Sofie von Otter singing Schubert; "The music is even more important than the composer - and certainly more important than the performer." |
But then, with Schubert’s Piano Trio No 1 in B flat major
death stared us in the face. He wrote it in 1827. He died on 19 November 1828. I
think it’s death and defiance in equal quantities. Writing that knowing you
have months at the most to live would have been hell on earth. Getting it out
and making it work as music that hits us in the gut is much more difficult. It
needs mature musical minds that have dissected it, thought about each phrase
and put it all back together into a coherent whole. Audience comment said they
nailed it!
Friends of Music at Resurrection curate Music at
Resurrection. They, including Dianne Gome (organ recital on 23 September) and
Elaine Smith, have extracted a promise from Seraphim to present an annual
recital that Elaine underwrites in tribute to her late husband.
I would be glad to be remembered in a similar way.
*Only
slightly hyperbolic
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