Music / David Pereira presents Strings in Spring, Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture. September 20. Reviewed by DAVID WHITBREAD

It turned out just as billed: beautiful chamber music for cellist David Pereira, violinist Chris Latham, harpist Alice Giles and pianist Arnan Wiesel.

In many ways, ACCC had the perfect acoustic for these instruments in their various combinations. And the sunny spring day outside added colour and light to the space.

These four performers are individually big names of music in Canberra (and beyond), so it was special to hear them together in this program of delights.

They demonstrated the very best of musicianship. Listening and responding to each other, enhancing each other’s performance and interpretation, comfortably sharing the lead as the music dictates.

Starting with a musical Acknowledgement of Country composed by the late Glenda Cloughley to words by Hazel Hall for A Chorus of Women. While under-rehearsed, it was saved by the impromptu inclusion of singer Sarah Stitt who was invited from the audience to join them.

The concert opened with two Mendelssohn works for piano and cello. The first opened with Pereira’s sweet, rich cello tone and Wiesel’s ringing piano. In the second from Opus 49, Periera’s cello was the Evangelist to Wiesel’s unassuming but strong piano presence. And the cello finished with pizzicato plucking in the left hand while playing long arco notes.

These works prepared the comfortably full audience for Arvo Pärt’s “sacred music”, Spiegel im Spiegel.

This soft and sublime performance was sustained and shaped in the silence and stillness the audience allowed. Giles’s beautifully sustained lower harp notes resonated beneath her light persistent broken chords at the highest reaches of the harp, creating a measured peace. Latham’s controlled pitch and dynamics and a light vibrato added the calmly ascending and descending solo lines.

Then they both played Ravel’s Piece en forme de habanera, originally for voice and piano, but perfect for violin and harp. They captured its alluring Spanish tango rhythms and flavour.

Giles played Debussy’s shimmering Clair de Lune and Fauré’s Impromptu Opus 86 for solo harp. She described the Fauré as “voluptuous but colourful like Renoir” and indeed it is a lavish work. She carefully delineated the melody from the rich harmonic progressions and demonstrated great dynamic contrast. Magic glissandi, confident and sure flourishes completed the work.

After a brief interval, Pereira, Latham and Wiesel returned with Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor. Who could deny Mendelssohn’s place in the pantheon if they had heard this work?

From its grand opening, it is Mendelssohn at his most serious and accomplished. Melodies were passed seamlessly between the three players.

Its various episodes introduced romantic melodies, sometimes played in impressive unison by violin and cello, at other times they answered each other with the piano swirling around and through.

The third movement was rhythmic and bouncy in a frenzied dance with a very cute slight ending, before the triumphant march-like final movement. Throughout the work, bows are used percussively in fast passages. The busy Wiesel ensured ringing high tones finished his many flourishes.

There was also an assured suspension of the momentum building to the finale, delaying the climax. But it ended the recital strongly and satisfyingly.

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