A Contest in Preemptive Virtuosity: The Triumvirate of Julia Fischer, Daniel Müller-Schott and Yulianna Avdeeva at Wigmore Hall

Surrendering to collectivity, the instrumentalists let disparate personas loose in chamber works presented in cohesion and contention.

Above: Julia Fischer and Yulianna Avdeeva play Mozart’s Sonata No. 33 at the Konzerthaus in Bozen in November 2021.

Pulsing sumptuously in its husk, the violin limns heartbeats through vibrato: throbs of nature in an art. Apart from it by several yards the cello loosens its choleric temperament. Percussive shudders echo from the lustrous muster of the grand piano taking centre stage.

Such characterisations make for stereotypes. And yet musicians remain bound to bodies of creation as they are to bone and muscle; life and limb. The two-handed piano cannot bow, while violins make do without a pedal. Plucks skip keyboard playfulness. Immaculate ensembles don’t dissemble differences, but interfuse in a connection of intrepid opposites.

Imposing on their fellow instrumentalists, the masterful interpreters of last night’s Wigmore Hall recital fought the test of team work. Violinist Julia Fischer opened Smetana’s Piano Trio in G minor with aplomb embodying the score’s pervasive ff and sf in pristine streams. Lilting trills filled with an effortless precision that preceded piquant chords and fierce attacks; exacting a delightful manifesto of displeasure.

At the same time Fischer’s greatest facet also proved her hindrance: a consistent, medium-paced and somewhat wide vibrato that forever stalked her notes. In the few instances where it was slimmer, variation gifted her performance – leaving room for pianist Yulianna Avdeeva to radiate emotion.

Evoking broken hope, the player liberated tingling chords of ache. Against the brassy tones of Fischer, versatile Avdeeva brought uncharted tempi to the trio’s endless tuplets, key changes and arpeggiated chords. Vicissitudes of chaos sparked a flux in feeling in this charged ensemble; letting the piano self-reflect while Fischer’s violin dispensed commands.

Pedal-dappled trills slipped from the pianist’s fingers in the second movement, ‘Allegro, ma non agitato.’ Stupendous synchronicity joined all three players but the violinist and the cellist frequently got stuck in battle. Daniel Müller-Schott’s too-languorous expression dwelled in extra-wide vibrato; rolling out his staves belabouredly. Fischer’s fortes grew into a strong inhibitor for Müller-Schott, who had to fold the throbs of his vibrato in between the violinist’s. A fascinating face-off was the end result: one that afforded listeners the string at higher pitches with a whisper of its counterpart.

Accorded liberty by a brief solo respite in the work’s finale “Presto,” Müller-Schott embraced solemnity in bard-like recitation. Intonations courtesy of Rachmaninov’s “Vocalise” seemed to insinuate Smetana’s opus; skirting the style into 20^th-century sorrow. Stamina in minatory triplets on piano painted mental disarray in a stark contrast.

Delicate enlacements of arpeggiated chords dusted off Schubert’s too rarely hard Notturno in E flat (D897). Enticing listeners with echoes of a halcyon bridal procession, Avdeeva guided Müller-Schott and Fischer into tenderer mf expressions. At this softer volume the stringed instruments lost some cohesiveness – especially when oddly matched vibratos offered long-held notes. The timing of their pizzicati could have been a little slicker: they fell short of interplay. Diminuendo came in sudden dives on Fischer’s part; an execution lacking in dynamic nuance. Staggering the triplet grace note at the final chord, Avdeeva brought the piece back to psychology.

Dvořák’s Piano Trio in F minor led the three musicians into imitation: mirrors of the violin on both piano and the cello. Proclamatory tones befit the forcefulness of Fischer’s instrument as she decreed the twosome follow her – Avdeeva with decisive carriage; Müller-Schott with paled-out charm. The cellist’s bowing seemed too light as it discreetly skidded over parts. Generously he grasped a louder section later on – but with a fiery focus reticent to dim. While Fischer’s violin extended monolithic militance, monotonous enunciations grew from Müller-Schott’s too comparable strokes.

Querulous loud protests in the hands of Fischer seemed to muffle his capacities in the third movement, “Poco adagio”  – threatening the strings’ simultaneity. Co-ordination was recovered in the last, “Allegro con brio.” An overdense intensity in Fisher’s rendering accompanied the concert’s encore, the second movement from Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No. 1. At the same time Avdeeva’s rhythmically experimental tuplets typified a human stumbling in progressive failings: poignancy between stringed dazzles.

Arresting was this concert highlighting dichotomies in tone and rhythm: an event that made of its participants collaborators on their terms.