Christian & Tanja Tetzlaff, Leif Ove Andsnes, Wigmore Hall

Rapt chamber music from three people united in Schumann's great trio

by Ismene BrownTuesday, 11 May 2010

Christian Tetzlaff: 'with his light clean tone he sounded not like a celebrated soloist but a melder, a listener and a joiner-in'

Chamber music is a highly motivational experience - here is a group of instruments of quite different qualities parading, fighting, ganging up, inviting each other’s new ideas, dialoguing, and all this variety heightening the build-up to the moment when all instruments proclaim unanimity in a grand finish, or (even better) huddle up in mutual creative conspiracy and conjure a mysterious little spell that makes the outsider long to be part of it. All of which was present last night in both the performance and the music of Robert Schumann’s third Piano Trio, played by the Tetzlaff siblings, Christian on violin and Tanja on cello, with Leif Ove Andsnes at the Wigmore Hall.

The three debate gravely, then suddenly join in whipping up a fierce, edgy engagement with each other as equal in rights

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