That these three friends sold out the cavernous Royal Albert Hall quite so quickly was remarkable enough, but all the more astonishing was the communion they held with over 5000 people sitting and standing in utmost concentration.
Naturally, the RAH is quite the wrong place to hear this genre of music if you want to hear every detail in high-resolution clarity. Someone remarked afterwards that they just wished they’d heard this same concert at Wigmore Hall. This does a disservice to today’s performance however: while the middle register of the piano and parts of Yo-Yo Ma’s cello playing were lost in the huge space, the achievement of holding such a huge audience in rapt, silent attention speaks volumes for their musicianship.
It was telling that even immediately before the concert there was considerable confusion in the audience with regard to what Yo-Yo Ma, Leonidas Kavakos and Emanuel Ax would actually play, which in some sense seemed a minor detail. The originally advertised all-Beethoven programme had been slightly modified earlier in the week, with Shai Wosner’s reduction of the Pastoral Symphony giving way to Brahms’ C major Piano Trio, Op.87 in the first half. By the interval, one suspects even Wosner couldn’t have begrudged this change, after a breathtakingly beautiful account of the Brahms.
From the outset the trio established a rich intensity of sound and a totally absorbing sense that all concerned were on the edge of their seats. Not a single note of the afternoon’s music felt taken for granted, with utmost care and affection given to shaping every line and passing it between players. This was chamber music of the most genuine, honest demeanour, the whole so much greater than the sum of its parts. All three seemed gifted with some great power of telepathy, sensing, matching and developing whatever line they inherited from another. Here or there was a knowing grin or a soft smile, or simply a slight tilt of the shoulders to acknowledge receipt of the music from another.
The highlight of the afternoon was the slow movement of the Brahms, which was played with exquisite beauty, encompassing darkness, optimism and everything in between. It was a world away from the joy of the first movement, with utmost gravity underlying the music. By contrast the Scherzo flew along with piquant charm in its staccato figure, before an ecstatic finale which saw Yo-Yo Ma quite literally fly off his chair on at least one occasion. I can’t ever recall enjoying a late programme-change as much as this.
Beethoven’s Archduke Trio was similarly rewarding, with a compelling narrative giving structure to the expansive first movement and a Scherzo which fizzed with joy. The emotional heart of the work was again the slow movement, its soft D major tread here feeling every bit the inspiration for the great Adagio of Mahler’s Third Symphony, in the same key. The finale was as good-humoured, mischievous and sparkling as could be wished for. An enthusiastic reception was rewarded by two moving encores: a movement from Schubert’s B flat major Piano Trio D.898, and a bespoke arrangement by John Williams’ of his music to Schindler’s List.
