SEEN AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL

Beethoven: The Mutter Bashmet Harrell Trio, San Francisco Symphony Great Performers Series, Davies Symphony Hall, San Francisco. 7.11.2010 (HS)

 

Early in his career, before he ever wrote one of his legendary quartets, Beethoven wrote five pieces for the classic string trio of violin, viola and cello and then never returned to the form. The three instruments, however, can have their charms, as a trio led violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter made every effort to prove Sunday evening.

 

A full house at the cavernous Davies Symphony Hall, not the most intimate space for this delicate music, paid rapt attention while Mutter carried the ball. That was another difference between these trios, very much a violin with accompaniment as opposed to the quartets, where each instrument plays a more continuously vital role.

 

Not that the music lacked interplay. The rapport between Mutter and Lynn Harrell was apparent in the way they savored the occasional rhythmic twist and in Harrell’s responsiveness to Mutter’s tempos and dynamics. Violist Yuri Bashmet, on the other hand, seemed content to contribute his notes with little presence, almost underplaying the middle line. To be fair, there isn’t a whole lot to challenge a violist, but the line at least needs to have the same intensity as that of the other two instruments.

 

The program opened with the String Trio in C Minor, Opus 9, No. 3, the only one on the program that followed the four-movement form that Beethoven used for his quartets. Mutter and the boys applied plenty of polish, appropriate for this music, not nearly as tempestuous as many of Beethoven’s C minor works. It even ends in a quiet C major hush, which in these hands sounded lovely.

 

The other two pieces — the seven-movement Serenade in D major Opus 8, and the six-movement String Trio in E-flat major, Opus 3 — follow a form more reminiscent of Mozart’s serenades and divertimentos, with the expected good humored results. Mutter, Harrell and Bashmet found the most charm in the slow movements, especially in an unusual conflation of slow movement and scherzo in the Opus 8 that shifts back and forth between Adagio and Allegro molto, respectively. The Adagio at the center of the Opus 3 trio takes off in some unusual harmonic explorations, which Mutter and Harrell, at least, seemed to enjoy.

 

In the end, this lightweight program eventually lacked something. If the music eschewed gravitas for charm, the musicians needed to revel in that aspect of the music. When they did, the results were ravishing. With a little more consistency, and perhaps more of a contribution from the viola, they might have sent us all home more satisfied.

 

Harvey Steiman