Plain is rewarding

Trio in C minor Op 1 No 3 - Beethoven Les jeux d'eaux a la Villa d'Este - Liszt Sonatina Kodaly Trio in D minor Op 49 - Mendelssohn

Two new piano trios have begun giving concerts in the past few months, both bringing together an Irish pianist with foreign string players who've settled in Dublin. I missed the concert by the Vindobona Piano Trio (Eyal Kless, Eckart Schwarz-Schultz and Reamonn Keary), though there should be sufficient opportunity to catch up with them in future as they're involved in Music Network's newly extended Musicwide scheme.

The advance publicity for Wednesday's John Field Room concert promised a group with the name 3-Three (both hyphenated and un-hyphenated), although the programme at the event itself just listed the names of the players; violinist Elaine Clarke (co-leader of the NSO), cellist Ben Rogerson (member of the NSO), and pianist Rachel Quinn.

The group's strength comes from the direct and unaffected music-making of Elaine Clarke. Ben Rogerson sounds a more reticent participant. His tonal presence is affected by the weightiness of the pianist, who doesn't seem to have mastered the knack of being supportively unobtrusive. Cellist and pianist were heard at their best, passionate and balanced, in the Cello Sonatina by Kodaly. Quinn sounded over-stretched in both Liszt's solo Jeux d'eaux a la Villa d'Este and in Mendelssohn's ceaselessly busy D minor Trio, even though the chosen speeds were far from extreme. The best concerted playing was provided in the plainer but more rewarding challenges of the Beethoven Trio.