Date: Fri 21-Feb-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: SUEZ

Illustration: C

Location: A8

Quick Words:

Ives-Trio-Friends-Music

Full Text:

Extraordinary Talents Perform For Newtown Friends of Music

By June April

The Ives Trio may be one of the "new kids" on the musical block, but they are

talent personified, as a group and as individuals. Their love of music is why

they are together, and the depth of that commitment to performance excellence

is on the highest level.

From the first opening notes of an afternoon concert on February 16, the

Trio's recent Newtown performance was pure joy. Clarity, rich and sensitive

blending of the three instruments and award-winning musicianship marked each

of the three works: Haydn, Brahms and Mendelssohn.

Pianist Randall Hodgkinson is on the faculty of the New England Conservatory.

He and his wife fill their "spare time" playing duets, and listening to

one-another's playing. He has won the International American Music

Competition, sponsored by Carnegie Hall and the Rockefeller Foundation. As a

soloist Hodgkinson has played in some of the great institutions, such as the

Kennedy Center, Weill Hall and Carnegie Hall, all to wildly ebullient

audiences.

The sonorous tones of Christopher Costanza's cello hold the promise of his

being counted as one of the greats, in the tradition of Piatagorsky and

Casals. He, too, has performed as soloist and member of chamber groups, to

rave reviews.

The handsome and familiar face of violinist Curtis Macomber is familiar to

Newtown Friends of Music audiences who saw him as part of the New World String

Quartet. With recordings of the complete Brahms Quartets and Roger Sessions'

Solo Sonata available on compact disc, Macomber is a sought-after performer.

Like Hodgkinson, he has given concerts at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center,

and played with renowned major symphony orchestras.

These three young men had all heard of one another via the musical circles.

"We're all from the New England area," pointed out Hodgkinson, "and we decided

to join together since we all really love and appreciate the repertoire that

exists for trios."

When asked about the group's name, Hodgkinson laughingly admitted it was not

after the American composer Charles Ives.

"We were looking for a sound that was acceptable to everyone, and Ives was

what everyone was happy with."

With minimal use of the pedal in the Haydn Piano Trio in E Major, Hob:XV, 28 ,

the beauty of this work focuses on the artistry of the keyboard. The second

movement, Allegretto , was reminiscent of Bach's style, while the third

movement had a Romantic nature. Written later in Franz Joseph Haydn's life,

this music expresses the richness of the composer's genius.

The boldness of the opening bars of the Brahms Trio in C minor, Opus 101

yields to impassioned music throughout this work. It calls on the musician's

skills of dynamic shadings and electric mastery of rapid passages, contrasting

with tender melodic segments. All musical and technical challenges were met by

the Ives Trio.

The second half of the program was filled with the beauty of Felix

Mendelssohn's Trio in D Minor, Opus 49 . One of the most beautiful standard

works in Trio literature, this melodious composition is ecstasy to listen to.

It was extraordinarily uplifting to hear the glorious melody woven through the

rich tones of the cello, to the sweetness of the violin and the bright sounds

of the piano.

Many years ago this reviewer heard a recording of pianist Artur Rubinstein,

violinist Jascha Heifetz and cellist Gregor Piatigorsky playing this same

Trio. Unless memory serves me poorly, Sunday's performance was a close, a very

close second to the superb musicianship of those three legendary figures.

Easily, this was one of the all-time outstanding afternoon presentations at

Edmond Town Hall.

One can only hope their reputation yields the issuance of compact disc and

cassette recordings of the Trio. To have the opportunity to see and hear them

more often is also a happening, devoutly to be wished.