Trio Noga returns with a program of Mozart, French music and Israel composer Matan Serry's arrangement of a song by Sasha Argov

Idit Shemer,Shira Shaked,Orit Messer-Jacobi(courtesy Trio Noga)

 

Trio Noga is back with a new program. As most befitting to salon music, the recital on November 24^th 2021, the first of an Israeli concert tour, took place at a private home in Jerusalem. Members of the trio are Idit Shemer-flute, Orit Messer-Jacobi-'cello and Maggie Cole (US/UK)-piano. With Maggie Cole unavailable for the current series, Shemer and Messer-Jacobi were joined by Israeli pianist Shira Shaked. 

 

Trio Noga's program opened with W.A.Mozart's first mature work of the piano trio genre, the Divertimento in B-flat major K.254 (1776), a work representing the unquestioned supplanting of the harpsichord by the pianoforte (actually, the fortepiano), this resulting from important technical advances in piano-building in Vienna. Here, the violin part was substituted by flute (Shemer), and most effectively too. From their buoyant reading of the opening Allegro assai, to the delicate, singing Adagio movement with its somewhat unsettled middle section, to the charming Rondo:tempo di menuetto, the artists gave engaging expression to Mozart's small, lightweight gestures, the work's passing minor dramas and to its many dialogues between piano and flute. 

 

Written originally for piano four hands, Claude Debussy's "Petite Suite", L.65, has undergone many transcriptions. Here, hearing 'cellist/composer Doron Toister's setting, we were immediately drawn into the water-borne serenity and languor of "En bateau" (Sailing), as inspired by a poem of Paul Verlaine, its text describing a sensual ride in a boat on a dark lake at dusk. The instrumentalists recreated the spry canvas of "Cortège" (Retinue), a saucy piece endorsed with a touch of Commedia dell'Arte frivolity and alluring harmonic turns. The final two movements, "Menuet", with its pastoral sensibility and "Ballet", brimming with Parisian joie-de-vivre, delighted the audience with the trio's lightness of touch and rhythmic badinage, with Shemer's poignant, nostalgic and sparkling playing giving voice to the music's mostly pastel, French flavour.

 

Then, to music of French flautist/conductor Philippe Gaubert (1879–1941), often referred to as a "weekend" composer, whose 80-or-so works include several for flute that have become an important part of the instrument's repertoire. Despite his prominence as a conductor and soloist, it is his flute-oriented compositions for which Gaubert is best remembered. Shaked and Shemer played "Deux Esquisses" (Two Sketches for Flute and Piano). In the first, "Soir sur la plaine" (Night on the plain), opening with a fleeting association of Debussy's "Syrinx", a piece rich in fine writing for both instruments, in lyricism, chromaticism and complex rhythms, piano and flute take on independent roles, creating a captivating weave, albeit transparent. "Orientale", another fine concert piece, its piano part at times evoking bells, offers a suggestion of the mysterious and exotic East. Almost orchestral at times, indeed, characterized by sweeping 'cello melodies and long phrases, Trio Noga's playing of Gaubert's "Pièce romantique" emerged collaborative, spontaneous and sensitive. 

 

The house concert concluded with young Israeli composer Matan Serry's arrangement of Alexander "Sasha" Argov's "The Purple Dress" (lyrics: Chaim Hefer), a setting written especially for the Noga Trio. One of the preeminent composers of modern Hebrew song, Argov composed songs that remain an important body of works in the canon of Israeli music, his unique and complex musical language integrating popular- with classical elements. Serry's arrangement is lush, imaginative and suave, offering each of the players the opportunity to shine. Leaving a taste for more, I would suggest Serry arrange two or three more of Argov's songs to produce a congenial group of pieces. 

 

A delightful evening of house music. Kudos to Shira Shaked for contending with the challenges of performing on an electric piano. Trio Noga was established in 2015, with the aim of offering its listeners a new, fresh approach to a well-known and much-loved repertoire, as well as introducing new and rare works to its audiences.