Daniel Auner (Violin), Robin Green (Piano) Ben Tarlton (Cello) after their performance for nadsa Concerts with Amos Nelson representing sponsors Rathbones Investment Management
nadsa Concert Review – Piano Trio
📍 The Courtenay Centre, Newton Abbot
🎻 Daniel Auner (Violin), Robin Green (Piano), Ben Tarlton (Cello)
🎯 Sponsored by Rathbones Investment Management
Programme
Mozart – Trio in G major, K564
- Allegro
- Larghetto
- Allegretto
Beethoven – “Ghost” Trio in D major, Op. 70 No. 1
- Allegro vivace e con brio
- Largo assai ed espressivo
- Presto
Brahms – Trio No. 1 in B major, Op. 8
- Allegro con brio – tranquillo – in tempo ma sempre sostenuto
- Scherzo: Allegro molto – meno allegro – tempo primo
- Adagio
- Allegro
Encore – Brahms, Five Duets for Soprano and Alto, No. 1
Review
A fusion of international musicians gave the Newton Abbot audience a brilliant Viennese concert last Friday evening. Daniel Auner had flown in from Vienna to team up with Robin Green, a collaborator of long standing now based in Wales, and Ben Tarlton, now living in London. Our performers were international, but all of the composers spent significant periods of their lives in Vienna.
There was a light touch to the piano, nuanced phrasing and excellent balance right from the word go. In Mozart’s Trio in G, the Larghetto led us to an engaging melody, flowing from one instrument to another in a series of variations. The fifth, in a minor key, must have taken the pianist and piano to the limits of their pianissimo possibilities. Then we had the jolt of the final variation. The following Allegretto was swinging and dancy.
The audience enjoyed Viennese stories from Daniel. His ancestors had been near neighbours of Mozart, living right by the entrance of the Hofburg Palace. Mozart was living in the cold attic without running water; how amazing that he could produce music of such vitality and sublimity from these dingy conditions. Years later, a young musician, searching for an apartment, was quizzed by the landlord regarding many possible antisocial behavioural traits. The landlord refused any more musicians. He only agreed to the young man becoming his tenant after he received a letter of recommendation. Who had the previous tenant been? ‘Beethoven’ was the answer. We also heard how Robin and Daniel had travelled the world together performing and championing the Viennese musical tradition.
Beethoven’s Trio in D got off to a bold start, and quickly, through the Allegro, morphed into contrasting phrases executed with great dynamic detail. The Largo was a complete change of mood: spooky. Who needs a ghostly film? Their music did it all. No wonder this work is nicknamed ‘Ghost’. The Presto was a great relief: light, playful and fast fun.
Introducing the audience to our next composer, Daniel related the anecdote of Brahms jotting down on a napkin the theme of ‘Blue Danube’ and writing “Alas, not by Brahms”. However Brahms’ Trio in B was glorious from the start, and each return of the theme was an added bonus. The Scherzo felt a maelstrom of different moods and emotions: so much of life was there. The following Adagio brought a sense of restrained majesty with pensive bittersweetness. Surely the warm tones of Ben’s cello were the voice of Brahms. Then, the performers led us to the tenderest of pianissimos to nothingness. The final Allegro grew in waves of surging turbulent and impassioned drama.
Following such drama, the encore, from Brahms’ Five Duets for Sop and Alto No.1, was an excellent piece of programming: reassuring calm.
This concert was sponsored by Rathbones Investment Management as part of nadsa’s 2024–25 season at The Courtenay Centre, Newton Abbot.
