★★★½ ☆ Internationally acclaimed trio delivers stellar Chausson if Beethoven underwhelms.

Adelaide Town Hall
November 9, 2016

From a piano trio more inspired by a precious marble from the Chinese city of Dali than the Spanish surrealist painter, it seams reasonable to expect a certain level of polish and refined craftsmanship as befitting its evocative name. For their Adelaide concert, violinist Jack Liebeck, cellist Christian-Pierre La Marca and pianist Amandine Savary presented a beautifully balanced programme of piano trios by Beethoven, Smalley and Chausson on their second national tour for Musica Viva.

As if caught off guard by the cavernous acoustics of the Adelaide Town Hall, the Trio attempted to overcompensate for lost clarity in Beethoven’s early Piano Trio in E Flat, Op. 1. With the piano at full stick, pianist Amandine Savary endeavoured never to drown out her companions, employing the una corda pedal almost ubiquitously. But in doing so, her tone lacked the steely clarity it needed to really project, and much of her impressive passagework became lost in the mix as the violin and cello often dominated. There was plenty of fine playing throughout, with dramatic contrasts well enunciated and cadences precisely synchronised, while phrases passed from...