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Palm Beach Daily News Music Review Range of tone, sound makes trio stand out: By KEN KEATON Thursday, January 25, 2007 The Kravis Center on Tuesday night hosted the local debut of a remarkable young ensemble, the Trio con Brio Copenhagen. The audience in the Kravis' Rinker Playhouse was rewarded with one of the finest chamber music concerts this reviewer has ever experienced. The Trio con Brio Copenhagen is actually only one-third Danish: pianist Jens Elvekjaer. The remaining members are two Korean sisters: violinist Soo-Jin Hong and cellist Soo-Kyung Hong. The ensemble formed in 1999 and has an impressive record of performances and awards in Europe and Asia. Their most recent honor is the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson International Trio Award. The biennial prize is given by, and in honor of, the eponymous trio to support rising careers. It includes a recording contract, a series of concerts and the loan of a priceless historic violin and cello to the winners. The father of the piano trio is generally acknowledged to be Joseph Haydn, and the Copenhagen opened with his 27th trio, in C. The performance was appropriately sprightly, but the quality of the work didn't prepare one for the rest of the performance. Ravel's Trio in A minor is one of the greatest of all chamber works, a test of the mettle of any ensemble. The performance was overwhelming. Let's get the basics out of the way. Balance, ensemble and intonation were perfect. The Copenhagen plays with a single mind. And each of the three is a virtuoso of the highest order. What stands out with the Copenhagen is the range of tone and sound, especially the Hongs. They have an amazing breadth of timbres. Cellist Kyung had a hundred different sounds of pizzicato, and could fill the hall with the depth of her lowest register. Elvekjaer seemed to fear nothing, yet never for a moment overwhelmed his partners. Ravel's second movement, Pantoum, dances gaily around a central melody, which Elvekjaer sang gloriously. Menahem Pressler, pianist for the Beaux Arts Trio, once referred to this passage, citing "the rare privilege we musicians enjoy, to be permitted to play such beauty." The third movement is a passacaille. The performance was elemental, inexorable, captivating the audience like the flow of a mighty ocean current. And the waves of sound that swept through the final movement threatened to blast the audience out of their seats. The second half was Dvorák's Dumky Trio. A dumka is a Slavic musical form, characterized by mercurial shifts between melancholy and joy. The work is composed of six dumka, and can be quite a challenge for anyone not raised with the subtleties of this music. The Copenhagen performed this work with the same masterly approach that they brought to the Ravel, and the performance was revelatory. What magnificent sounds. The second movement opened with Kyung playing the same note, repeated in various rhythms. How can she draw so much meaning out of such simplicity? And how could Elvekjaer make Dvorák's notoriously unidiomatic piano writing seem so natural? And how was it possible for violinist Jin to move from affecting sweetness to riotous dance, all in the same movement? The encore was the slow movement of the Mendelssohn Trio in D minor, a lovingly played kiss good night. Return to the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson International Trio Award |
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