by Marvin J. Ward

Norhthampton, MA, 6 April 2008.  The Hartford, CT-based Adaskin String Trio presented a fine and carefully balanced recital yesterday evening in Smith College’s Helen Hills Hills Chapel (The repeated name is not a typo, although the repeat is often left out, as repeats sometimes are in performances of musical scores, too.).  It included a Classical and a 20th-century work on each half of the program, the final one being what was most likely, though uncertified as such, the 1st performance in the Commonwealth of a work that was lost for some 65 years.

The musicians launched right into the Op. 9/3 Trio by Ludwig van Beethoven, his final work in this genre.  Their rendition of the opening Allegro con spirito movement was so spirited that it inspired a large portion of the audience to burst out in well-deserved applause.  This type of interruption unfortunately continued after the other movements as well and ultimately became annoying for its disruption of the continuity of the experience of the pieces and its destruction of the spell created by the performance. Ultimately, during another work, a listener near the front raised her hand and waved it like an upside down pendulum to convey the message that the lack of applause from most other listeners had failed to communicate.  This writer shall remember that method for future use.  Is it now becoming as necessary to print in the program a note about applauding as it is for the silencing cell phones and other noisemakers, and for not using flash photography and recording devices?  The Adaskin recorded the complete works (5) for string trio of Beethoven in a 2-CD set in 2002 on the Musica Omnia label.  Readers can enjoy them there uninterrupted.

The repertoire for string trio is much more limited than that for string quartet or piano trio.  So is the number of regularly performing string trio ensembles.  A search for equivalent recordings on Archiv Musik (Theirs isn't there.) turned up only a half dozen groups, all in Europe, other than impromptu trios formed by famous soloists for the specific purpose of recording something, such as the Beethoven Op. 9 trios, for example.

The Adaskin presented next a rarely heard work by French composer Alexis Roland-Manuel (Roland Alexis Manuel Lévy by birth, 1891-1966), a student of Vincent d’Indy and Albert Roussel, who also studied privately with Maurice Ravel, for whom he became the biographer.  He was also a critic and taught at the Paris Conservatoire after WW II.  He was involved in the 1927 group-effort ballet L’Évantail de Jeanne, wrote some comic operas, film scores, and a string trio in 1922 that shows clearly the influence of Ravel, to whom it is dedicated.  It is a charming piece, characteristic of its time, well constructed and worthy of greater exposure; only one recording from a music festival performance exists.

After the pause, a Josef Haydn trio was presented.  There were no printed program notes, so each of the 3 musicians introduced a work, cellist Mark Fraser having done the honors for the Roland-Manuel.  Violist Steve Larsen took over for the Haydn, which he called a dinosaur story, because it was, of course, not written for the string trio in its present-day configuration.  Haydn’s patron Nikolaus Esterházy played an instrument that is no longer in widespread use, even if it has not become fossilized: the baryton.  It had more or less the range of the viola, but resembled a viola da gamba with extra sympathetic strings.  Haydn wrote some 126 trios for his employer to play with him; he probably played the violin.  No. 95 was presented, a good choice because of some melodic similarities with the Beethoven.  These trios are much shorter and less complex than Beethoven’s, but are nonetheless delightful.  A movement from another was offered as an encore.

Violinist Emlyn Ngai introduced the concluding work by telling its curious history.  Bohuslav Martinú composed his 1st string quartet in Paris in 1923-1924, and after a couple of (presumed) performances there, sent it to Vitĕslav Novák in Prague in 1925 for a performance and critique by him and by his own mentor, Josef Suk.  He unthinkingly sent his only copy; it got lost after the performance.  It was discovered in the Danish Royal Library in Copenhagen in 2005 through the efforts of the Martinú Institute in Prague and was published in 2006.  It is a wonderful work.  This writer hopes the Adaskin will record it, along with the 1934 Trio No. 2 previously known as Martinú’s only one, perhaps its contemporary the Roland-Manuel and another work or two from the same general time frame as space on the CD permits.

The audience was immediately on its feet to acknowledge the superb playing throughout the performance.  Balance and ensemble could not have been more perfect, and the instruments, though of entirely different provenance and vintage, worked well together.  It you are a lover of chamber music and the Adaskin is performing in a venue near you, make sure you’re in the audience!