LEE TRIO AT SPRING LAKE VILLAGE WITH A RARE ENCORE

by Terry McNeill

Wednesday, September 27, 2023

San Francisco-based Lee Trio has been frequent Sonoma County visitors at Music at Oakmont and at the Spring Lake Village Series, and Sept. 27 they returned to SLV for a concert of very early Beethoven and very late Brahms.

The E-Flat Major Trio, Op. 1, No. 1, was especially well played, only in places sounding Haydnesque in the opening Allegro that had lots of energy with pianist Melinda Lee Masur’s alternating ascending scales with staccato and some short legato phrases. Throughout the piano line was more or a leader than a dominator.

In the gay Scherzo violinist Lisa Lee and cellist Angela Lee played long sustained lines while Ms. Masur’s piano part featured Mozartian phrase ending trills. The leaping piano tenths in the concluding finale introduced two joyous themes and much good musical humor.

There was little surface humor in the Brahms C Minor Trio (Op. 101) that ended the printed program. It’s a dark, dense, late night work from 1886, and right off the Lee mounted a dramatic reading of powerful human emotions. The three-note figure at the outset was starkly played, and this potency continued through the work, apart from the Andante Grazioso’s tender string dialogue with the piano, perhaps with question and answer. Phrases.

The playing in the finale began like the opening Allegro, but became beguiling with the key change to major, and an affirmative statement of warmth in the masterful coda.

In a rare chamber music ensemble choice for the 125 in Montgomery Auditorium, an encore was offered: a trio transcription by cellist Angela Lee of Amy Beach’s lovely “Ah, Love, What a Day!” from the Op. 44 Browning Songs. It was captivatingly performed, laconic and at times intense.

Montgomery’s house piano has long sounded too bright and loud at the top end, exacerbated by the flat hard floor and bare walls. Weill Hall’s expert technician Will Reed prepared the instrument for this one-hour concert, the result being better register balances and richer tone colors.