San Francisco Performances is an invaluable organization that presents musical and dance performers from around the world and locally, from the very famous to those starting their careers. Last Saturday at Herbst Theater they presented the Tetzlaff Trio, consisting of my favorite violinist in the world, Christian Tetzlaff; his cellist sister Tanja Tetzlaff; and pianist/conductor Lars Vogt.
The group started with a delightful performance of late Mozart, the
Piano Trio in B-flat Major, K. 502. I heard Christian Tetzlaff with the SF Symphony last month as soloist in Mozart's
Violin Concerto #3 and his playing was so great that he almost forced conductor Michael Tilson Thomas into a good Mozart performance. With his companions Tanja and Lars he didn't need to be so insistent, though there was a slight imbalance in forces because Christian is in a rarefied musical class of his own, and sometimes it was hard not to concentrate on his playing alone.
This was followed by a harrowing masterpiece by Shostakovich, his WWII-era
Piano Trio in E Minor, Opus 67, which careens from deeply mourning to maniacal throughout its four movements. There were a few moments, particularly in the second movement, where the Tetzlaff brother and sister played off of each other in such an extraordinary manner that it sounded like a brand new instrument had been invented, some cross between a violin and cello. The Shostakovich trio is amazing enough in itself, but a performance as good as this one left everyone in the audience stunned.
After intermission, there was a long, serious, impassioned piece of Romanticism by Dvorak, his
Piano Trio in F minor, Opus 65. The performance was rich and expressive, and it was one of those rare concerts where you leave exhilarated.
There was a nice encore, too, Dumka No. 3 by Dvořák.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the Shostakovich Trio was harrowing, but it was a stunning performance I won't forget.
One reason that pianist Lars Vogt may have seemed to create an imbalance was that he had, oh, about a thousand notes to play for each note in the violin or cello parts. I've heard the Brahms Piano Trios, Quartets, and Quintets referred to as "piano concertos with very small orchestras".