Greytown Music Group – The Koru Trio

The Koru Trio, from Wellington, will provide the Greytown Music Group’s last concert for the year. Formed in 2011 by pianist Rachel Thomson, violinist Anne Loeser, and cellist Sally Isaac, their mission is to work their way through all the highlights of the rich piano trio repertoire!

The concert begins with Dvorak’s Piano Trio in E Minor, known as the Dumky Trio. It has an unusual form of 6 movements, switching between slow and melancholy elegiac moments, and fast impassioned ones. (“Dumka” means “thought” in Ukrainian, plural “dumky”. Dumka music often incorporates folk themes.)

The last work, Schubert’s Piano Trio in B Flat, is lively and buoyant. Written in the year before his death, perhaps he needed a light joyous composition to divert his attention away from his illness-filled life. Robert Schuman said of this work: “One glance at Schubert’s trio and the troubles of our human existence disappear and all the world is fresh and bright again.”

Sandwiched between the trios will be Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Cello, dedicated to Debussy, and full of striking dissonances, wild pizzicato, and rhythmic verve.

All three musicians play for the NZSO, and combine a busy playing schedule with other activities. Sally Isaac has two young children, but sees some light at the end of the tunnel as kindy and school are about to provide her with some time of her own. Rachel Thomson says two teenage boys, husband, dog and budgie keep her on her toes. Anne Loeser has a husband with a demanding bucket list: she has just spent three months travelling by train through Australia, Asia, Russia, and Europe, to a wheat field on the outskirts of a small Spanish village, the exact antipodes of their house in Wellington!

The Koru Trio: 4pm on Sunday 15 September at 57 Wood Street, Greytown. Admisson $25, students $10. For bookings phone Ed or Juliet Cooke on 06 304 9497 or email them at efjac@xtra.co.nz