Piano Trio No.1 in B, Op.8 - Brahms
Piano Trio No.4 in E minor, Op.90 - Dvorak
The youthful members of the Sakura Piano Trio, in their lunchtime recital in the NCH John Field Room on Friday, justified their ambitious programme with playing that was intellectually sound and emotionally persuasive. Music, one felt, could be a universal language, when presented with such warmth and dedication. Certainly communication between the Japanese players (Aya Hirata, violin; Mariko Wada, piano) and the Irish cellist (Cliodhna Ni Aodain) was unimpeded by any differences of language or culture. The difficulties of balancing the two stringed instruments with the piano (also stringed, but percussive in action) were solved with apparent ease as the parts coalesced or emerged from each other with fluent skill.
Brahms's Trio No.1 was played with elan, but there could have been a greater sense of what might be called the silence behind the music. The chorale-like atmosphere of the Adagio would have been enhanced played at a slightly slower speed, and the admirable way the phrases were shaped in the central section might have been even more telling.
Dvorak's Trio No.4 (Dumky) is a more relaxed work and the Sakura Trio, while recognising this, paid great attention to those little nuances of phrasing and dynamics that so enliven a score. The rapid transitions from grave to gay which are such a feature of this work could still surprise but never sounded contrived.
