Mendelssohn Piano Trio - Mendelssohn - 01/30/09

Mendelssohn: Piano Trio in D Minor, Op. 49, No 1
Mendelssohn: Piano Trio in C Minor, Op. 66, No 2

This February, Washington is celebrating Felix Mendelssohn's 200th birthday with several concerts spread out in various venues all over town. Last night, the community-oriented music school Levine presented one of its many offerings at the Atlas Performing Arts Center on the gentrifying H Street, NE. Inside, the smaller Lang theater turned out to be quite a little haven of homely comfort and good acoustics. One of the premier chamber music ensembles worldwide, the Mendelssohn piano trio chose, not surpringly, two little treasures from the Romantic composer's repertoire, and on we went with the celebration.

Mendelssohn may not have broken new ground in the musical field, but, ah, the melodies! The two pieces featured yesterday evening night are among the most representative of his works, deeply musical in their magical combination of joyful lightness and no holds bar intensity. The three musicians were visibly very comfortable with one another, probably due to over a decade of collaborating, and gave us a tight and perfectly balanced performance. This was very refined chamber music played by an exceptional trio whose skills were as sharp at technique as they were at lyricism.