Forte and Formidable – a review

Albert G Storace reviews the Forte Trio concert at Teatru Manoel, held in collaboration with Gaulitana: A Festival of Music, following on  SOIRÉE MUSICALE held on Easter Monday.

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FORTE & FORMIDABLE

This gifted piano trio formation had, by all accounts, quite stunned their audience in Gozo when they performed at a Gaulitana Festival event there. This I found out after the event reviewed below.

It was a very fortuitous matter that the Manoel and Gaulitana Festival joined forces to acquaint an audience in Malta with this piano trio formation from exotic Kazakhstan.

To begin with, pianist Timur Urmancheyev who founded the Trio and is also artistic director, introduced the first work, a musical description of his country. He spoke of the wind, mountains and other features of his country. The piece is called Yapurai and is an arrangement by Tolyk Bae’v of various Kazakh folk songs. The initial tremolo of the strings evoked the wind blowing across the vast Kazakh steppe. The sound became richer with the piano stepping in. The result was a rich kaleidoscope evocative of many different aspects from that interesting landlocked region.

Then came Beethoven’s beautiful Piano trio in B flat Major op.11. The composer also catered for an optional role for a clarinet instead of the violin. The three performers are all prize-winning musicians who have performed in the greatest concert venues in Russia, China, Vienna and Berlin. Even in Yapurai one could feel that this top class playing.

In the 3-movement Beethoven trio this stood out well enough. Balance, texture and tone; excellent rapport and interaction; equal doses of musical sobriety and passion and yes, a sense of fun in the very catchy concluding Theme and variations. It was simply and exhilaratingly brilliant.

There was more to come. 2024 marks the 2^nd centenary of the great symphonic master Anton Bruckner. It is also the same with regard to Bedřich Smetana the 140th anniversary of his death (1884) is also marked this year. For this reason, the Forte Piano Trio performed the Piano Trio in G minor, op. 15 by the “Father of Czech music”. This is a deeply personal and autobiographical work. The work unfolds in three movements beginning with a Moderato assai, moves on to an Allegro non agitato and explodes into vigorously relentless Presto.

Behind all this is the loss of Smetana’s eldest day daughter Bedřiška. Composed in 1855 and revised three years later it was only published in 1880. By then the composer was already in an asylum deaf and depressed. The passionate intensity of the performance was amazing yet there was no rushing lack of control. That was despite the increasing intensity of the work. Splendid and most heartfelt for the performer end the listener.

The last work was a Kazakh music fantasy by the Kazakh composer Ilya Bashkatov (b.1992). Based on a Kazakh song it ended this concert with colourful folk influences. That is, after all, the root of all music.

Albert G Storace