An old master, playing with youthful joy
There's nothing like going out on top. The Beaux Arts Trio is on its farewell tour, having spent 53 years redefining the art of the piano trio. Its final Boston appearance, at Jordan Hall on Friday night, didn't look like an easy victory lap. They came bearing new music by Gyorgy Kurtag and Schubert's two late piano trios, in B-flat (D. 898) and E-flat (D. 929).
The trio's repository of wisdom and insight lies with its pianist, Menahem Pressler, its sole original member. Chamber music is billed as a meeting of equals, but the Beaux Arts is unquestionably Pressler's group. Of course, his two (considerably) younger colleagues are crucial strands in the trio's DNA. Cellist Antonio Meneses, with his beautifully burnished tone, is its internal adhesive; violinist Daniel Hope, whose sound was somewhat wirier, is its youthful, impetuous energy. But Pressler is its heart, its pulse, and its deep wise soul.
The three performers were on relatively equal ground in the piece by Kurtag, whom Pressler, speaking from the stage, called "one of the great musicians I know." "Work for Piano Trio" is a brief but luminous gem in which the players seem to drift in and out of each other's orbit. String harmonics float like whispered secrets over bell-like chords in the piano. The logic of the piece was difficult to parse, yet there was a strange sense that each note fell exactly where it should. Laudably, the trio played the piece twice; the two performances lasted less than five minutes.
It was in the two Schubert trios that the group's decades of experience became fully evident. These are lengthy and oddly constructed works, especially the E-flat, and the temptation among many groups is to rush the tempos so as to make them seem less unwieldy. Relax, Pressler seemed to be telling his partners; play this music on Schubert's time, not yours.
The results were magical. Each work unfolded at its own leisurely pace, sometimes in suspended animation. Yet the momentum never flagged and details were abundant; Hope and Meneses each contributed gorgeous solos. Most important, each piece had a wonderful sense of wholeness.
That the 84-year-old Pressler can still summon a huge sound and rapid fingerwork is a marvel; his hands seem to be ageless. Even more remarkable was his constant and irrepressible sense of joy. There is probably no other musician who communicates so openly his love for the music he plays. There were three encores, by Shostakovich, Haydn, and Dvorak. Pressler was probably in the mood to play more.
