Texas Classical Review

The Hermitage Piano Trio presented a program of mostly Spanish music on Saturday as part of the Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth’s season theme of “Subtle Connections Around the World.”  

The internationally renowned trio—violinist Misha Keylin, cellist Sergey Antonov and pianist Ilya Kazantsev—performed selections by Spanish composers of the early 20th century at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth.

Throughout the performance, two attributes of the trio stood out:  the quality of their sound and the meticulous ensemble coordination.  The violin and cello of Keylin and Antonov each possessed a clear, singing tone perfectly suited to the often vocally styled melodies.  Both maintained a perfect balance with each other and with Kazantsev’s piano, which possessed a sparkling quality.  The players’ melodic and rhythmic interplay was seamless; several pieces included abrupt pauses that the players executed with startling precision.

The ensemble began with the Trio pathétique in D minor of Mikhail Glinka, the only non-Spanish piece in the program.  An assertive theme in octaves opened the piece before Keylin and Antonov began alternating phrases over rippling accompaniment from Kazantsev, after which Antonov took the lead in the movement’s lyrical second theme.  The group sustained the energy of the opening through the first movement, allowing the mood to lighten as they proceeded into the scherzo while maintaining their momentum.  Here, Keylin and Antonov traded supple melodic lines over Kazantsev’s darting piano.

The Largo displayed the piece’s titular character in an affecting arioso between Keylin’s violin and Antonov’s cello, followed by Kazantsev’s piano and both strings.  Kazantsev then opened the finale with a commanding motif, to which Keylin and Antonov answered.  Kazantsev’s steadily accelerating accompaniment underscored the exchange of phrases between Keylin and Antonov, after which the players raced through the closing presto to the end.

“Granada,” a serenade from the Suite Española, Op. 41 of Isaac Albéniz and adapted for piano trio by the musicologist Klas Krantz, ushered in the program’s Spanish focus.  Keylin’s violin took on the role of a melancholy singer accompanied by soft guitar figurations from Kazantsev’s piano, with Antonov joining the violinist in a soaring reprise of the serenade melody in octaves.

Selections from Manuel de Falla’s Siete canciones populares españolas alluded further to the topic of song, here in an arrangement commissioned from conductor Konstantin Maslyuk. Over a forceful dance rhythm, Antonov and Keylin each stated an ardent verse of El paño moruno, which offers a stained cloth as a metaphor for lost honor.  Kazantsev provided the core melody of the lullaby, Nana, with gentle accompaniment from Keylin and Antonov.  Kasantsev in turn provided a soft accompaniment to Antonov’s and Keylin’s increasingly fervent lament for a lost love in Canción.

Jota saw Kazantsev underscore a blissful love song by Keylin and Antonov with a vigorous dance rhythm.  Antonov brought a shift of mood in Asturiana, sounding a mournful dirge.  To end the cycle, Polo, a repudiation of love, featured intertwined lines from Antonov and Keylin underscored by agitated accompaniment from Kazantsev and culminating in a clipped, angry outburst. 

The selections by Albéniz and de Falla were notable for sounding distinct despite their shared use of “Spanish” rhythms, melodies and harmonies.  This also applied to the second half of the program, which began with Joaquin Turina’s Piano Trio No. 2 in B Minor, Op. 76.  

Although the first movement’s themes seemed reminiscent of Schumann, melodies in the more introspective development overtly adopted the Spanish character described above. The second movement also took on this character, particularly with its 5/8 meter, but the impressionistic sonorities of Kazantsev’s chordal accompaniment to the skittering melodies of Keylin and Antonov strongly suggested Debussy.  The finale proceeded as a series of episodes leading to a quick set of daunting chords that provided a clipped but definitive ending. 

Tres impresiones by Mariano Perelló rounded out the program with a suite of picturesque vignettes similar not unlike the de Falla Canciones. Pensendo en Albéniz evoked sounds of Perelló’s composer-mentor through its lyric melody sounded by Antonov and Keylin over a dance accompaniment marked by prominent hemiolas.  Capricho Andaluz included brief dance episodes in different meters while Excene Gitana, or “Gypsy Scene,” added even more striking details to augment the already exotic Spanish quality of the work.

Response was so strong that the ensemble performed an encore, the Seguidillas Gitanas from Enrique Arbó’s Trois pièces originales dans le genre espagnol, Op. 1. The Hermitage Piano Trio’s rousing performance brought both the piece and afternoon’s program to a splendid conclusion.

The Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth’s next concert takes place November 8. The program includes Fauré’s Piano Trio in D Minor, Saint-Saëns’s Piano Trio No. 1 and Dvořák’s Piano Quintet No. 2. cmsfw.org