Rehearsal for Sept. 18-19 performances by Prometheus Trio
Three seasoned musicians—violinist Margot Schwartz, cellist Scott Tisdel and pianist Stefanie Jacob—showed a large and enthusiastic audience Tuesday evening (Sept. 19) why the Prometheus Trio has been so successful for nearly two decades and counting. Their performance of three very different trios not only displayed their fine individual talents, but also their seamless perfection as an ensemble.
They started with a tight take on Joseph Haydn’s early Trio in G Minor, a pleasant but otherwise unremarkable work rendered here with clarity and attention to detail. The star of the show was definitely the least known: Trio Concertant (1928) by Hungarian composer László Lajtha. This is a remarkable, challenging work in which cadenzas appear for each instrument in the first and last movements. Nowhere else in the program did each player get to shine quite so brilliantly.
The second half of the concert was the loveliest: Johannes Brahms’ Trio in C Major. Of note here were Jacob’s rich chords and graceful tremolandos and Schwartz’s complete control over the very meaty passages Brahms wrote herein for the violin. A brief encore, a thorough delight, indeed, ended the evening’s music: a transcription for trio (by Jacob) of a piece for bassoon and piano by Camille Saint-Saëns.
