SITKOVETSKY TRIO / Review

SITKOVETSKY TRIO 

Yong Siew Toh Conservatory 

Orchestral Hall

Tuesday (5 March 2024)

Some of the best things in the world are free. Tickets to Taylor Swift gigs are not among them, but a front row seat to witness the Sitkovetsky Trio performing certainly was. The small audience at Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of not more than fifty music-lovers was treated to some of the most exquisite chamber music this side of Wigmore Hall.

The Sitkovetsky Trio has to be the most cosmopolitan piano trio thought possible. Based in the UK, it is formed by Moscow-born Russian violinist Alexander Sitkovetsky, German-Korean cellist Isang Enders and Shanghai-born Chinese pianist Wu Qian. When people say that music is a universal language, this trio is its perfect embodiment.

The trio's varied but interesting programme opened with The Freak Show by the young Irish composer Sam Perkin (born 1995). It comprised seven very brief movements inspired by a rat circus in some World War One prisoner-of-war camp. It's odd assortment of techniques employed by the instruments amply mimicked or suggested the grotesqueries to be found in the movements, each with an equally unusual title.

For example, the third movement Living Skeleton makes use of spiccato (bow bouncing off strings) on violin and cello to create a dry and desiccated sound effect.  Angel of Death, a portrait of Joseph Mengele, is a slow grating legato of grim countenance. The longest movement was Pandora's Basket, filled with music box sound effects simulated by pizzicatos and plinking staccatos on the piano. The final movement, Armless Fiddler, employs no bows, with only pizzicatos, foot stomping and a final shout to close a fascinating musical cabinet of curiosities.

The balance of the programme was more traditional, with Ravel's Piano Trio (1914), one of the twentieth century's greatest piano trios, to complete the first half. The Frenchman uses a common theme to unite its four movements, the work being so well-crafted that one does not really notice this. The syncopated first movement (Modere) was taken at a moderate pace which sounded slower than usual, but well enough to sustain its narrative. The balance struck between all three players was close to perfect, bringing out its exquisite harmonies coherently and with much clarity.  

The second movement's Pantoum was modelled on the form of a Malay poem (pantun). Although there is nothing Malay about this music, its exoticism comes from using the pentatonic scale. Its scherzo-like spirit was well-captured, and if there were anything Oriental in feel, that would be in the solemn slow procession of the third movement's Passacaille. I cannot imagine this movement done better than this. The light and breezy Finale (Anime), also a variant of the opening main theme, was transported to a feverish climax at its close, which was greeted with very vociferous acclaim.

The second half's offering of Mendelssohn's Piano Trio No.2 in C minor (Op.66) is a relative rarity compared with its frankly overplayed predecessor in D minor. The opening movement was possessed with a Beethovenian sturm und drang, contrasted with a more lyrical second subject in E flat major. The mind boggles why this totally engaging work is not played or heard enough, especially with the sumptuous song without words at the heart of the slow movement.  

The contrasts provided by this and the glittering flitting of the short-winded G minor Scherzo were beautifully brought out. There was no let-up in the Trio section which continued in its mercurial busyness. Has anyone noticed that the dance-like finale has almost the identical theme as the Scherzo from Brahms' Third Piano Sonata? That did not occur to me until this evening's performance, which provided an uncanny sense of déjà vu. Surely Brahms could not have plagiarised Mendelssohn.

There was another surprise in the finale, with the quotation of The Old Hundredth, also All People That On Earth Do Dwell, or commonly the Doxology (Praise God, From Whom All Blessings Flow) in Methodist churches in Singapore. The grand apotheosis at its end was an affirmation of true faith that good music abides, delivered with authority and aplomb by the Sitkovetskies. 

Loud and prolonged applause was rewarded with another rare gem, the slow movement from Cecile Chaminade's Piano Trio No.2. A truly gorgeous piece with a prayer-like countenance rising to an impassioned high. The question arises again: why don't we get to hear this more often? Thanks to the Sitkovetsky Trio for helping us make new friends.