Mithras Trio – 3rd February 2023

There is nothing unusual in opening a concert with Beethoven’s Piano Trio in E flat, Op.1, No.1.  But the way the Mithras Trio played it was indeed unusual. So vivid was their portrayal of this, the first of Beethoven’s piano trios, that one almost forgot it was a pre-1800 piece, written about seven years before his First Symphony, with Mozart only three years gone and Haydn still very active.  These players’ marked characterisation of the piece, from the incisive rhythms of the first movement, through the songful slow movement and good-humoured scherzo to the witty, ebullient finale caused one to reflect that if some misfortune had caused Beethoven to be gathered by the grim reaper at the age of 31, like Schubert, such music would have been seen as a certain promise of greatness to come.

It was not simply that every note of the work was brought to life: the sparky interaction between the players made the texture of the music so alive, yet so unified. At the end of it all we may well have thought…“Rachmaninov, Korngold? Do we really need them?”. Indeed the ovation accorded these three talented musicians as this stage resembled an end-of-concert crescendo of approval.

Yes, there was Rachmaninov – early Rachmaninov – for everything in this concert was a juvenile product of its creator. At 19, the seeds of the Rachmaninov style we know from such as the Paganini Variations or Third Symphony were already germinating, surely enough, but one remembers powerful surges or passionate gestures in this Trio Elegiaque in G minor without witnessing a compelling, progressing entity. Certainly its instrumental demands were masterfully met.

Which brought us to the evening’s curiosity, the Piano Trio in D by Korngold. The Austrian-born Jew Erich Korngold would end up as one of the most prolific writers of film music in Hollywood. An early training in harmony led to the production of this D major Trio at the age of 12. The first thing that must be said is that the piece represents a prodigious talent at composition. At this tender age ideas poured out of him in profusion – ideas that were melodically interesting, harmonically assured, and set into reasonably coherent formal structures. Clearly his boyish garrulity at this stage got the better of him, but the neo-Brahmsian basis of his style was overlaid with attempts to reach out to other styles of the day.

The music in the air at the time he produced this work included Debussy, Ravel, Bartok, Rimsky-Korsakov, Stravinsky, Mahler, Sibelius, Schoenberg and Elgar. One heard here the odd flash of some of these, and others. And sometimes there was charm or a touch of ‘je ne sais quoi’ to help the piece along. As it played itself out, we reflected that above all it had been fun. ‘Played itself…’? No, of course not. It took a lot of playing, and the Mithras Trio did it all with aplomb, virtuosity, and good humour – and such well-drilled ensemble.

Altogether a memorable evening, with an apt little encore thrown in: a transcription for trio of the second piece from Ginastera’s Danzas Argentinas for piano. It provided a calm, relaxing coda to what had been a truly magnificent concert.

Beethoven
Rachmaninoff
Korngold

Piano Trio in E flat, Op. 1, No. 1
Trio élégiaque No. 1 in G minor
Trio in D Major, Op. 1