“A thing of beauty is a joy forever,” so says the poet. Last night I heard a “thing of beauty” when I attended a chamber music concert in a chamber-like room. Three lovely young women played a Schubert and a Mendelssohn piano trio. Aside from the obvious talent of each woman, was the fact that they were evenly matched in that talent and in lyrical sense. Each voice of each instrument, piano, violin and cello was both distinguishable and indistinguishable. By that I mean, each instrument could be heard with the same dynamism and technical prowess, yet the music flowed as one graceful breath. So often when musicians are unevenly matched, or under practiced, one instrument dominates the other. Last night, that did not happen. At the end of each movement I was tempted to stand up and shout, “Brava!” (or what ever the feminine plural is). I was transported to a state where I found myself thanking God for such perfection and weeping for joy. The music was such that it permeated my subconscious to the point that later I actually dreamt about what I had heard.
Such a gift created by two men who died, one before 50, the other, before 40, played by women in their 30’s in a span of 150, or so, years. How lucky can one get!
