Memorable concert from the cheerfully named
Sempre Viva. (Review by Michael Green)
An evening of varied chamber music was
presented by the cheerfully named Sempre Viva (always bravo) Trio for the
Friends of Music at the Durban Jewish Centre.
The trio consists of Denise Sutton (violin)
and Kerryn Wisniewski (piano), both South Africans, and Polina Burdukova
(cello), described as Russian although she emigrated to South Africa with her
parents 22 years ago. All three are accomplished and experienced players,
trained in Europe and now based in South Africa. They have performed together a
good deal, as a trio and, in the case of the cellist and pianist, as a duo (the
two of them gave a recital in Durban three years ago).
There is a rich repertory for piano trios,
and these performers moved a little off the beaten track with extended works by
Arensky and Shostakovich, a Grieg piece and an arrangement of Faure’s song Apre un reve, After a dream.
They opened with Grieg’s Andante con moto, a little-known work by
this gifted and distinctive composer.
Then came the Trio in D minor Op. 32 by
Anton Arensky. This is reasonably well-known and it was played here at the
Jewish Centre not long ago. Arensky was a Russian who died of tuberculosis in
1906 at the age of 45 after a rather dissipated life. This trio is a delightful
piece, and it was delivered with great zest and panache by the Sempre Viva
players. Perhaps one of these days we will have a performance of some of
Arensky’s outstanding two-piano music.
In strong contrast was the grim and
uncompromising Piano Trio No. 2, Op. 67 by Dmitri Shostakovich. This was
written in 1944, and it reflects the composer’s horror at the Nazi atrocities
of the time. It is undeniably impressive, from its eerie opening, with a high
cello note, to its bizarre finale, with a reference to Jewish folk music.
Sempre Viva played this difficult music
with great skill and conviction. Not light entertainment, but an experience.
After this the last item on the programme,
the Faure piece, came like a balm, a benediction.
A good-sized audience gave the players
strong applause for a memorable concert.
The Prelude Player of the evening, funded
by the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund, was a very young pianist,
11-year-old Rachel Wedderburn-Maxwell, a pupil at Durban Girls’ College who is
taught music by Liezl-Maret Jacobs. She showed a technique and poise beyond her
years as she played pieces by Friedrich Kuhlau (1786-1832) and Chopin and a set
of variations by Henk Temmingh, a member of the well-known Temmingh clan of
South African musicians. - Michael Green
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