Pianist Ya-Ting Chang and cellist Fiona Thompson of the Mendelssohn Trio. The Trio performed in Pottsville’s Trinity Episcopal Church on November 21, 2021. PHOTOS BY LINDSEY SHUEY
Originally published in the Pottsville Republican-Herald on November 22, 2021.
POTTSVILLE- The Mendelssohn Trio, a world-class classical music ensemble, performed the music of Haydn, Beethoven and Brahms at Trinity Episcopal Church in Pottsville Sunday.
"It's better than playing in front of a screen," said violinist Peter Sirotin, who was joined by pianist Ya-Ting Chang and cellist Fiona Thompson.
Peter Sirotin.
The concert, part of Trinity's 2021-22 concert series, was not only an evening of gorgeous music but a history lesson, showcasing the transition from the Classical to the Romantic period of western music. Romantic (with a capital R) music does not necessarily mean lovey-dovey, but instead music that focuses on heightened emotions and the power of nature. The concert was called "Sturm und Drang," after the moody German literary and musical movement whose name means "storm and stress."
There was very little storm or stress in the concert's opener, Haydn's Piano Trio in C Minor, Hoboken XV: 13. Its first movement was as pleasant as an April breeze. Ya-Ting Chang's piano sounded like soft waves lapping at the grassy edge of a creek. During the second movement, Sirotin wrenched sounds from his violin similar to those that come out of a teddy bear when you squeeze it.
Four years after this piece was written, Beethoven wrote his Piano Trio, Op. 1, No. 3 in C Minor. According to Sirotin, critics complained that the piece, and others like it, "could not be contained" because they had "too much drama."
Both Beethoven and his works were frequently regarded as "too moody." And what's wrong with that? The Trio's imperious, brow-furrowing opening movement calls to mind Beethoven's iconic portrait, where the furious maestro is deep in thought. Trinity Episcopal Church itself took on the appearance of an approaching storm, the ghostly gray ogee arches rolling above like thunderclouds. The pulpit and light fixtures were suspended heaven, made of endlessly ornate patterns that contrasted and built off of each other much like the music played by the Mendelssohn Trio.
The retreating sunlight gave the stained glass windows intense, electric color, only to turn the figures into translucent wisps as it faded. The dark mosaics were reduced to a million fragments. They were spelled out like an ancient language to the sound of Beethoven, the universal language. Music took the place of the disappearing images.
The evolution from Classical to Romantic was completed by Brahms' Trio in C Minor, Op. 101. The achingly beautiful work, written almost 60 years after Beethoven's death, was the epitome of lush, lyrical romanticism. In the skilled hands of the Mendelssohn Trio, it was the music of flight. It takes the listener on a wondrous and unexplainable journey. It was the kind of music you just get lost in, and the kind of music that warms the chilly nave of a church on a November night.
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