<<  -- 2 --  Bill Newman    DIFFERENT APPROACHES

Come the evening, I made my first visit for many years to the Conway Hall at the far end of Red Lion Square, Holborn for one of the highlight recitals in the current series of the London Chamber Music Society. The whole enterprise is a real hive of activity, families and members busy talking music, performances, selling CDs, all completely devoted to everything concerning the continued success of their series. Class distinction is non-existent. The artists for this very important occasion were the Rosamunde Trio -- Martino Tirimo, Ben Sayevich and Daniel Veis -- now fast becoming old friends and colleagues, despite some of my silly, argumentative comments! Mozart's Trio in C, K548, a masterpiece of his late period, was followed by Dvorák's Trio in F minor, Op 65, which Martino insists (and I totally agree) is the finest of his works in this format.

Following the interval came Schubert's haunting Trio in B flat D898. The concentration was immediately taken up with the stylistic conception of the Mozart, the crystaline quality of Tirimo's fingerwork and phrasing providing the perfect platform for his colleagues. I have to state, straight away, that the group possesses none of the facile sameness for the classical repertoire that pervades some of their younger contemporaries. There is both studied maturity and poetic depth in their interpretations: the slow movement's sad, songlike yearnings and the Finale's playful nonchalance were wonderfully caught.

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