Fujita Piano Trio in concert

The three sisters of Japan’s Fujita Piano Trio provided a rare musical experience at last Sunday’s concert for the Mid Argyll Arts Association (MAAA), attended by a capacity audience.

The Trio – Arisa (violin), Honoka (cello) and Megumi (piano) – played the whole concert from memory. This is rarely the case in chamber music and takes immense confidence and expertise. They gave a performance which must rate as one of the most accomplished he MAAA has witnessed.. Their balance was perfect and their ensemble playing breathtaking.

The programme opened with the Haydn Trio in G (Gypsy Rondo), so called because of the gypsy theme in the final movement. The three sisters instruments each came to the fore in turn as the composer intended. The final gypsy rondo was familiar to many of the audience and the applause at the end of it was enthusiastic to say the least.
.
Then came Schubert’s Trio in B flat. The march-like first movement, the dialogue between cello and violin of the second movement leading to the scherzo and spirited finale were played with great finesse and sensitivity.

After the interval was Mozart’s Trio in C major (K548). This charming and generally cheerful 3 movement work was executed with great delicacy and precision.  In both this and the Haydn, Megumi cleverly restrained the power of the modern piano to reflect the character of contemporary instruments.

The official programme ended with Shostakovich’s 2nd Piano Trio in E minor (Op. 67). Written in 1944 as a memorial to his friend, Ivan Sollertinsky, who had died in a Nazi concentration camp, this work is dark and melancholy.  The first movement is quiet and reflective, the second a wild scherzo.  The third movement, a set of variations for violin and cello over slow repeated chords on the piano, was intensely moving.  The finale, using an old Hebrew tune, with its taut rhythms and drama was a true tour de force, and the final quiet restatements from earlier movements quite magical.

The audience would not let the Trio leave without an encore for which they played Frank Bridge’s Allegretto.

P.B-S.