EIF music reviews: Sitkovetsky Trio | Benedetti & Sitkovetsky’s Tribute to Menuhin

Sitkovetsky Trio ★★★★★

Queen’s Hall

Even the sudden, ear-shattering roaring from a forgotten turned-on microphone couldn’t put the Sitkovetsky Trio players off their stride. They’d just launched into the furious scherzo of Shostakovich’s Second Piano Trio when the noise forced them to stop, only to begin the movement again even more vehemently, even savagely.

The interruption probably couldn’t have come in a more fitting place - and they continued with a deeply tragic slow-movement chaconne, all sobbing phrases against a monumental piano backdrop, and a bitter, grotesque finale that left few doubts as to Shostakovich’s vitriolic sarcasm.

It was typical of the Trio’s intensely felt, forcefully projected performances across their programme of classics and rarities. In the second category, the Sitkovetsky players made a thrillingly strong case for Chaminade’s little-known Second Piano Trio, revelling in its almost orchestral-scale textures and churning emotions, even if their more recent commission, To the Pointer Stars by Iranian-born, London-based Mahdis Golzar Kashani, proved a little more elusive, slipping into attractive grooves that seemed to lack a sense of forward movement.

They opened, however, with a bounding and big-boned Beethoven ‘Ghost’ Trio, perhaps overegging the second movement’s unsettling otherworldliness, but offering a finale in grand arcs of sound that was both captivating and galvanising. Despite unexpected sonic intrusions, a concert of compelling performances and profound emotional depths.

David Kettle

Benedetti & Sitkovetsky’s Tribute to Menuhin ★★★★

Usher Hall

Granted the rarely bestowed Freedom of the City of Edinburgh 60 years ago in recognition of his contribution to Scotland’s capital, much of it via the Edinburgh International Festival, legendary violinist Yehudi Menuhin would surely have been proud of the tribute paid to him on Monday evening at the Usher Hall.

Led by Nicola Benedetti and fellow violinist from her Menuhin School days, Alexander Sitkovetsky, it was an evening of poignancy and affection from the joint directors and players of Wroclaw’s National Forum of Music, appearing as part of the EIF’s focus on Poland season. Hearing the pair as an infectiously joyous alliance in Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins was one of these unique festival moments that leave an indelible mark.

Fluent and well matched in tone and style, the second movement’s interweaving scoring of the solo lines gleamed with radiant beauty. To start, Elgar’s Serenade for String Orchestra, with EIF Rising Stars swelling the ranks, was promising in intent but not quite sufficiently settled across the ensemble. A different matter, however, when they returned for Bartok’s Divertimento for String Orchestra, with its folksy and fulsome bite and energy, especially from the lower strings.

Carol Main

Triptic ★★★★

The Hub

Violinist Greg Lawson, pianist and accordionist Phil Alexander and double-bassist Mario Caribé have played together for many years, notably in the much-loved Moishe’s Bagel, purveyors of klezmer, tango and much else. Now, as the trio Triptic, they continue to gleefully defy categorisation.

Their engagingly melodic and tightly delivered repertoire from their new album, The Jackdaw Sessions, reflected diverse musical influences and sources of inspiration. Alexander’s opener hinted at Erik Satie, played over a stately, descending bass, until Lawson’s klezmer-sounding violin soared to stratospheric trilling. Another, plaintive, Jewish-sounding air had been unearthed recently in Kiev, while Caribé’s Flatlands, with its resonant bass work, was inspired by Lincolnshire scenery.

A pensive waltz by Alexander commemorated a much-loved cocker spaniel, while a lusty rumba by Caribe celebrated his venturesome Spanish-Brazilian grandmother, its energetic progression from minor to major reflecting Spanish then Brazilian rumba styles.

There was much humanity about it all, as in Lawson’s twinning of the lovely Northumbrian lullaby Bonny at Morn with a spirited, tango-like number which had been passed on to him, amid heartbreaking circumstances, by an Iranian refugee, and not least in Phil Alexander’s winsome epilogue, Evening Song, with which they dispatched us on our way.

Jim Gilchrist