Neave Showcases Two Recent Compositions

Yesterday evening the Neave Trio of violinist Anna Williams, cellist Mikhail Veselov, and pianist Eri Nakamura wrapped up the year with a final live-streamed performance from the Edward M. Pickman Concert Hall at the Longy School of Music of Bard College, which is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Their program, entitled Finding What is Lost, showcased two new works that the trio had premiered over the last two years. The earlier work, “Another Chance” by Dale Trumbore, was first performed in 2018; and it was preceded by the fifth and final section of a longer composition entitled “Missing Words” composed by Eric Nathan. Nathan prepared a video introduction for his piece, and Williams introduced the performance of “Another Chance.” As of this writing, the entire program is available for viewing through a Vimeo window on an Eventbrite Web page.

Nathan’s composition was the more engaging. All five sections were inspired by Ben Schott’s book Schottenfreude, a lexicon of newly created German words for the contemporary world. The fifth section has three movements for the words “Ludwigssyndrom” (Ludwig’s-Syndrome), “Kissenkühlelabsol” (Pillow-Chill-Refreshment), and “Watzmannwohn.” That last was given no translation and seems to be simply a coy conjunction of lexemes. However, because it is the final word in the entire “Missing Words” collection, Nathan realized it as a wild free-association ride through references to virtuoso cadenzas. If Nathan’s attempts to transform Schott’s sense of humor into the first two selections came across as somewhat strained, the jokes in the final movement fired on all cylinders. Since this was the final work on the program, Neave definitely left its virtual audience in a good mood.

“Another Chance,” on the other hand, was more true to the overall title of the program. The composer described it as “a musical exploration of the creative (and composing) process: putting down an idea; obsessing over it; revising it; second-guessing and re-writing it.” Regrettably, she expressed her thoughts in words better than what her music conveyed. One could grasp rhetorical moments of frustration and stress, but there was little in the overall structure to seize and maintain attentive listening.

At least Trumbore had a good sense of limiting the duration of her composition. The same could not be said of the four-movement D minor trio by Mikhail Glinka, which opened the program. Composed in 1832 and originally scored for clarinet, bassoon, and piano, the composition was given the title “Trio Pathétique.” (Note that, as is the case with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Opus 74, the Russian adjective translates as “passionate,” as opposed to the connotations of pathos in the French translation.)

In his youth Glinka became familiar with music by the First Viennese School composers. During a trip to Europe that began in 1830, he became acquainted with Felix Mendelssohn, Hector Berlioz, Gaetano Donizetti, Vincenzo Bellini, and Franz Liszt. He is better known for his operas than for his chamber music, and that latter genre is modest compared to his piano and orchestral compositions. The score for the trio has little to recommend it, either structurally or expressively. It would be fair to say that the Neave Trio gave the music its best shot but did not make a convincing case that the music would stand up to a second listening experience.