Elegance and eloquence, but the Streeton Trio sometimes dish up a curate’s egg.

Salon, Melbourne Recital Centre

April 19, 2014

The Streetons make a very elegant and as it turns out eloquent trio, with two of them doing introducing duty. We didn’t hear guest Tasmanian cellist William Hewer speak, but his warm playing spoke for itself. He was replacing regular cellist Martin Smith who has taken up an orchestral job in Europe, and was a good fit in this ensemble.

Violinist Emma Jardine told us that Mozart’s Piano Trio No. 6 in G major, K.564 was his last completed trio and that it was happy music. Indeed it was, although I felt that she could have enjoyed it even more, as some of the playing was a bit stiff and unyielding. A nice tempo was set for the Theme and Variation second movement, letting it’s natural expression speak. The playing was perfectly poised, and at times Kopp made time stand still. In the last movement, sometimes the upbeats were too strong, placing undue emphasis on unimportant notes.

Andrew Anderson is a Melbourne composer, and his piece The Heart from last year runs to three movements. Its language is strictly tonal, and is...