Jennifer Higdon’s six-minute Fiery Red forms the second part of her two movement Piano Trio (a 2003 commission) and continues her preoccupation as to whether colour can convey mood. Whatever the answer, Emma Roijackers (violin), Lydia Hillerudh (cello) and Joanna Lam (piano) left us in no doubt as to the work’s demonic energy which, to borrow from Alfred Lloyd Tennyson, was unequivocally ‘red in tooth and claw’. It’s a virtuosic work of near ceaseless momentum, and the need for perfect coordination over its motoric rhythms was fearlessly met. If, at times, the work sounded like re-heated Bartók, it formed a striking curtain opener.
It was the Hungarian composer’s Piano Quintet that concluded the concert. It’s an ambitious early work (1903-04) that one might not initially associate with Bartók due to the influence of the late romantics. The decision by the players – Ruslan Talas, Laura Rickard (violins), Kyungsik Shin (viola), Rainer Crosett (cello) and Ziteng Fan (piano) – not to perform the Quintet in a single expansive span was well judged, although it might have been prudent for the string players to retune after the second movement. Soaring lines and shared intimacies caught the ear in the first movement, while irregular rhythmic patterns animated the neighbouring Vivace. If the Adagio somewhat lacked atmosphere, its piquant harmonies were duly underlined, and the csárdás-inspired rhythms of the finale were dashed off with much affection. Despite its admirable execution, the work’s 45 minutes felt overly long.
No such reservations for Enescu’s Third Violin Sonata (1926), here given a thoroughly absorbing account by Luke Hsu (violin) and Ziteng Fan (piano). Spontaneity of expression was uppermost in an approach that highlighted the first movement’s arabesque figures and cimbalom-influenced piano writing. Time seemed to stop in the ethereal calm of the central Andante, its misterioso element wonderfully captured. And then on to peasant carousing for a finale tinged with soulful expression (echoes of Bartók too), and building towards an intensely wrought final furlong, the two players alert to every nuance of this Romanian-inflected score.
