Music / Diana Doherty & Streeton Trio, at Llewellyn Hall, March 12. Reviewed by CLINTON WHITE

WITH some of the best and most respected musicians in the world on the stage in front of you, expectations are high. The “Australian cringe” might put those expectations on an evenhigher plane. Whatever the expectations for this concert, they were exceeded. Decisively.

Appearing for Musica Viva, these Australians, oboist, Diana Doherty, and the Streeton Trio (named after the artist, Sir Arthur Streeton) – violinist, Emma Jardine, cellist, Umberto Clerici, and pianist, Benjamin Kopp – delivered a performance that would attract the highest acclaim from the planet’s most discerning and critical audiences.

Opening the program was the “Quartet for oboe, violin, cello and piano, H315” by the Czech composer, Bohuslav Martin?, written in 1947. He had moved to Paris after World War I and then escaped to the US just days before the Nazis occupied the city in 1940.  Perhaps by 1947 Martin? was over the whole war thing, for this quartet is full of lyricism and hopeful anticipation, albeit with the piano’s foreboding start to the 2nd movement, but with a positive overtone from the violin and cello.

A hallmark of the performance of this work, indeed the whole concert, was the cohesion between the musicians. They were in close communication with each other all along the way, watching and listening intently to each other and achieving perfection in tonal balance. Smoother than silkcrescendi (gradually getting louder) and diminuendi (gradually getting softer), exquisite echo passages, and the most thoughtful expression added colour to this fascinating work that perhaps even its composer might not have imagined.

Then it was Felix Mendelssohn’s “Piano Trio in D minor, op 49”, dripping with the style of its musical era – the Romantic period. The Streetons again had their audience swooning with their expressive, lyrical playing, seamless lead passing and interactions, and a truly empathetic reading of Mendelssohn’s creative mind. This was especially so in the 2nd movement which achieved an inspiring “cantabile” (in a singing voice) tone, while, in the 3rd – the rather humorous Scherzo – it skipped along playfully.

This concert was also part of the world premiere tour of a new work by Perth-based composer, Lachlan Skipworth. Canberran, Andrew Blanckensee, commissioned his “Oboe Quartet” for Musica Viva last year in memory of his parents Anne and Alan.

Had Beethoven heard the three-movement work, he might have said it had a quite pastoral feel about it, with rippling brooks, spring flowers and fluttering birds, and perhaps even a brewing storm(in the reflective, melancholy 2nd movement), followed by a village fair with dancing, laughter and children playing.

It calls for virtuosic playing from all four members of the ensemble – not just for the many rapid note sequences, but also for the lyrical melodies, and changing tempi and expression markings. Doherty and the Streetons met that call brilliantly.

Skipworth’s “Oboe Quartet” is a very fine piece. It is approachable and entertaining, with vibrant imagery.  It surely will find its way into the standard chamber music repertoire.

After several curtain calls, the ensemble delighted its audience with a sparkling encore – an exciting performance of the final movement of Brahms’ first piano concerto. Doherty’s husband, Alexandre Oguey, who is principal cor anglais with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, had written a stunning arrangement for the quartet.

What a brilliant start to Musica Viva’s 2021 season!