Winding up a US tour stretching from Los Angeles to New York, the stellar threesome of pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet, violinist Lisa Batiashvili and cellist Gautier Capuçon put their individual and collaborative talents on full display in a captivating program of piano trios by three celebrated composers.
The program spanned three centuries and ran the gamut of emotions. Things started off in a joyful mood with late Haydn’s Piano Trio in E major, Hob. XV:28, the 44th of his 45 piano trios, written very near the end of the 18th century. While the composer described his trios as “accompanied sonatas”, where the violin and cello reinforce the piano’s bass and treble, the strings’ role in this work is much more interesting than this might suggest. The piece opened with Batiashvili and Capuçon happily plucking the ascending pizzicato theme as Thibaudet’s fingers danced along the keyboard. After the piano’s lovely legato delivery of the same theme, all three players were playing as equal partners, but as the somber shadows of the Allegretto emerged, the piano once again took center stage, the strings remaining silent for a full 28 bars while the pianist intoned its right-hand aria with perfectly judged pathos. However, all three musicians were in unwavering accord when they came together in the buoyant and whirling finale.
The centerpiece of the recital, an elegant and captivating account of Maurice Ravel’s only piano trio, proved to be the highlight of the evening, its 20th-century tempos and dynamics perfectly suited to Batiashvili’s vibrant and velvety sound, Capuçon’s burnished tone, and Thibaudet’s luminosity. The ethereal opening of the Basque-flavored first movement, with the violin’s whispery high register sounds playing over the piano’s rocking bass line, led seamlessly into a passionate and plaintive dialogue between violin and cello with the piano hovering in between, before coming to a gently haunting close.
The Scherzo-like Pantoum offered more playful banter between the instruments, its overlapping musical lines delivered with an attractive lightness of touch. The splendid Passacaille, with its somber instrumental interplay expressively voiced, developed with touching intensity. The tranquil mood was shattered by the ebullient and expansive finale, where the three musicians displayed tremendous virtuosity in its fluctuating meters and musical fireworks to produce a powerful reading full of urgency and drama.
Last on the program was Felix Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio no. 2 in C minor. The performance was gripping, exuberant, turbulent and vigorously virtuosic. The opening Allegro energico was an electrifying chase, the gently flowing Andante espressivo second movement an effective display of Thibaudet’s delicate touch. The Scherzo’s vibrant and skittering string writing, reminiscent of the magical fairy world of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, came off vivaciously with Batiashvili and Capuçon scurrying around on their instruments in its high energy rhythms. The Allegro appassionato finale underscored the close chemistry between the three, effortlessly shifting back and forth between turbulent and introspective, as the music raced to its jubilant ending.
A single, energetic encore was offered: the final movement of Antonin Dvořák’s “Dumky” Trio in E minor, its lively Slavic rhythms bringing a satisfying evening of chamber music to a high-spirited close.
