Chamber Trio Soars Despite Challenges of Outdoor Venue

Taking chamber music out of the chamber is a risky cultural act that can beg trouble, and several things that could go wrong did go wrong Sunday morning at the Ford Amphitheatre, in the second program of the new Sunday Brunch Classics series. The refined piano trio of pianist Christopher O’Riley, violinist Andrew Dawes and cellist Paul Katz ultimately rose to the occasion, but not without encountering challenges along the way.

Excessive heat didn’t help, coaxing sweat on both sides of the stage. Gusts of wind resulted in passion interruptus for Katz, who battled ghostly page-turning during the climactic movement of Dvorak’s Piano Trio in F minor, Opus 65, and Dawes did his best to keep pages in place earlier in the piece, while his hands were tied with triplets.

Amplification is a necessary evil in these outdoor venues, and it always involves a compromise of the sensitive dynamic interactions of chamber music, particularly in the delicate atmosphere occupied by a piano trio. And did we mention the heat?

All that said, this was one of those thorny affairs with a happy ending. Imbalances coming through the speakers were gradually resolved, and the ensemble ultimately soared, gracefully, on the theme of Schubert’s Piano Trio in E-flat, Opus 100.

Though it may have been intended as an appetizer, the Haydn Piano Trio in G conveyed a lightness and wit that played well, especially in this setting. The trio projected a knowing treatment on the poised elegance of its second movement and the vigorous rush of its finale, pumped up with furtive folk themes, and stayed fast and light on their feet.

It was another emotional matter entirely with the Dvorak, which begins with furrow-browed seriousness and gradually appeases its demons, and the musicians understood the central dramatic tension underscoring the notes--in addition to the extra-musical tensions and annoyances.

Schubert literally saved the day. His Piano Trio, written around the time of his profound song cycle “Wintereisse” and a year before his death in 1828, is a chamber music masterpiece that always bears another hearing in good hands. The haunting, melancholic theme that guides the second movement and recurs, shadow-like, in the long finale became a kind of anthem of resilient luster for the performance.

Against the odds, the musicians made beautiful music.