Clarinet Quintet in B minor - Brahms
Piano Quintet in F minor - Brahms
The Haenjo Trio shows every sign of healthy ambition. Michael Seaver (clarinet), Niall O'Loughlin (cello) and Reamonn Keary (piano) formed the trio in 1988 with the singular ambition of performing Brahms's Clarinet Trio. Their repertoire has expanded, via a mix of serious interest in chamber music and waggish humour. The latter is represented by their "discovery" of the neglected Hungarian composer (with Irish connections), Gabor Haenjo, of whose suspiciously eclectic music they have given many premieres. Monday night's concert at the RDS showed them at their most serious and ambitious, when "Haenjo and Friends" played Brahms's Clarinet Quintet and Piano Quintet.
These quintets are designed for string quartet plus another instrument. So it was risky to try them - some of the finest and most demanding pieces of late 19th-century chamber music - by importing three of the five players for each work. It was nearly too ambitious, for there were rough edges in balance, in homogeneity of sound, and in ensemble, and neither of the quintets came across as fully as one would wish in music of this quality.
Nevertheless, the string players - Anne Harte and Kathryn McKeggie (violins), Niamh Nelson (viola) and the Haenjo Trio's Niall O'Loughlin (cello) - were alert to one another and to their relationships with the clarinet or piano. The playing of all six musicians was judicious and driven by purely musical aims. The expressive palette was limited, but it touched on the essential qualities of both pieces, and there were truly vivid moments. So this was a concert enjoyable for its committed and considered music making.