The excellent musicianship of Selby and Friends

Selby And Friends | Lonely Angel

November 12, 2024, Melbourne Recital Centre, VIC

Artistic Director/Pianist – Kathryn Selby
Violin – Dimity Hall
Violoncello – Julian Smiles

Joaquín Turina Piano Trio No. 2 in B minor, Op. 76
Lento, Molto Vivace, Lento

Fauré Piano Trio in D minor, Op. 120
Allegro ma non troppo, Andantino, Allegro vivo

Pēteris Vasks Lonely Angel
[Vientuljas engelis] 1999

Brahms Piano Trio No. 3 in C minor, Op. 101
Allegro energico, Presto non assai, Andante Grazioso, Allegro molto

“Excellent Musicianship”

Since first reviewing Selby and Friends in a digital concert during lockdowns, I have come to greatly look forward to these concerts of chamber music. There is the joy of hearing great programmes, sometimes a little different and departing from mainstream repertoire, but always reliable and never boring with poised musicians absolutely at one with each other. The three musicians in this concert displayed a mature understanding of the music, unity of intent and great dynamic range. While I have in the past commented on Selby’s pearly and refined technique do not be fooled; she can play powerful big chords when needed! This range of sound was present in all three musicians. For me this is quintessential chamber music, full of intimacy, power, variety and simply put most most excellent musicianship.

The programme commenced with the Turina which after a slow three bars shifts to an energetic movement. In amidst the energy is lush melodic writing with lots of rich textures and sonorous harmonies. There is plenty of drama and contrast as well as showy passion with the big piano chords and the strings creating a great presence. Turina helped create a national and distinctive Spanish sound and this was evident in this piece. Hall and Smiles showed their ensemble skills by playing melodies in octaves with perfect intonation and unity. This unity of execution and intent was evident in fact throughout the concert.

Fauré’s harmonic language is distinctive with semi polytonal and enharmonic shifts so that the listener is left in a contradictory sort of logical limbo. The seamless shifts of tonality which elegantly move melodic material to different settings give an almost aimless and wandering aspect to Fauré’s music, but despite this there was a clear direction to each of the movements as a whole, which is a tribute to Selby’s ability to envision long musical structures, particularly necessary with Fauré’s music, and imbue them with strength while attending to all the finer internal details.

The haunting slow movement was everything you would want from a late romantic composer with the musicians clearly enjoying the melodic material. We heard again the violin and cello playing the melodic line in octaves with exquisite phrasing and unity.

The energetic finale was full of its own internal contrasting harmonic shifts giving a restless quality interspersed with quieter rhapsodic moments. The rhythmic shifts of metre here were given energetically and forthrightly.

“A long silence of deep appreciation”

The Vasks work came from a vision Vasks had of an angel watching over the world and is a single movement. The clarity of construction in this piece is a monument to Vasks compositional skills. Much of the time the violin and cello play the themes in octaves and the intonation and unity from Hall and Smiles was always exquisitely apparent. For much of this work the piano had a murmuring tremolo which was always there but never intrusive providing a perfect backdrop of texture to the two strings. At a few points the piano’s tremolo was almost imperceptibly discontinued to move seamlessly into a quiet rendition of the work’s themes this time in the piano. This was done in a lovely singing tone without being overbearing. The transparency of the piece was evident in the shifting roles of the instruments with the melodic line climbing as high up on the violin as it could go and then moving to ostinato like figuration while the cello worked the melodic material. The movement always has one instrument with some sort of accompanying texture to one or two melodies. The interplay between cello and piano with their counter melodies was an exceptional moment against the violin’s high ostinato figuration. There was a long silence of deep appreciation at the end before any applause began. “Our guardian angel had moved many”!!

One can almost do no better than complete a chamber music concert with Brahms. This performance had everything you could want and more. Selby showed her powerful technique to give the big chords in this piece full reign, but never sounding harsh. The final movement also showed of Hall’s powerful articulation in the violin. Her bow bit into the strings with dynamic vigour greatly helping to create the drama of this movement from the outset.

This concert was Selby & Friends’ 2024 season finale connecting music from Spain, France, Latvia and Germany. The 2025 season dates are in now. Book for all of them as Selby and friends can be relied upon for concerts exhibiting technical mastery and ease, poise and sublime beauty. I know I want to be there!