Bargemusic (8/18/12)

OK, so I took my birthday (week) off from posting. Saturday’s concert was piano/violin/cello music, with Olga Vinokur, Mark Peskanov, and Eugene Osadchy, respectively. As always, the program was announced from the stage and it began with the first movement of the Piano Trio in C Major, K. 548 by Mozart. Because it was so well received, the trio played the two movements that completed the work.

Next was the first movement of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio in A minor, Op. 50, with the Schubert “Rondeau Brilliant” (in B minor, D. 895) rounding out the program.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not a huge Mozart Fan but this piece had enough heft and variability from movement to movement to make it interesting without the cloying sweetness and sentimentality that I sometimes experience with Mozart. There were many repeats, as usual, but the second movement had some legato (smooth, gentler) lines while the third movement was bright and dance-like—but my notes also included bouncy. Bouncy, yet not frivolous sounding.

My notes are almost nonexistent for the Tchaikovsky, but I remember it as being well balanced and full of themes that (we were told) would be expanded on in the movements we weren’t going to hear.

The Schubert, for piano and violin, was firmly steeped in the Romantic tradition—rich harmonies, many phrases that didn’t end quite where or when I thought they would, and a few false endings, harmonically.

One minor quibble—a page turner for the pianist would have been nice. There were a couple of loud “thwaps” that were a bit disconcerting.

This was almost a dress rehearsal, since these three works were on the regular schedule for Saturday night at 8pm and Sunday afternoon at 2pm. Who knows, maybe there was a page turner for those concerts. Also as usual, there was a brief Q&A session after the concert and one question was about how often the performers practice scales. The general consensus was that with so much music to practice for performance, strict scales were not high on the list. That said, I spoke up and said that any time I’ve been at the “Barge,” Mr. Peskanov is never without his fiddle in his hands—whether he’s on that afternoon’s program or not. He’s always running his fingers and bow over the strings.

Thanks, Brooklyn. I’ll be back at Bargemusic from time to time.

ConcertMeister