The Aviara Trio

The Rancho Bernardo Public library has a chamber music series. Several libraries have similar programs. They are a rich source of music in San Diego County and they’re all free.

I bring up Rancho Bernardo because the Aviara Trio will be performing on Wednesday September 17th from 6:30-7:30 p.m. The concert program is Mozart Trio in C Major KV 548, Rachmaninoff Trio Elegiaque No 1 in G Minor, and Mendelssohn Trio No 1 in D Minor Opus 49.

The Mozart trio is a mature work composed when he was 32 years old in 1788, four years before his death.

Rachmaninoff isn’t particularly known for his chamber music but this trio will instantly be recognizable as having all the elements that we love, even though he was only 19 years old when he wrote it.

I’m tempted to think of the Trio Elegiaque as something of a chamber piano concerto. Listen to the YouTube and tell me I’m wrong.

What about Mendelssohn? Yes, what about Mendelssohn. I, for one, often take Mendelssohn for granted. It could be that I’m influenced by our friend Wittgenstein who said that Mendelssohn is like Brahms but without the rigor.

Mendelssohn is something of a mystery to me. He’s somewhere between Beethoven and Brahms but not quite the same way that Schumann is or that Weber is.

Anyway, the Trio No. 1 balances this concert program. Mozart is the salad, Rachmaninoff is a dish in a heavy cream sauce and Mendelssohn is exactly what we need to finish off a delicious meal of chamber music.

The Aviara Trio is comprised of Ines Irawati on piano, Robert Schumitzky on violin, and Erin Breene on cello. Irawati was a frequent soloist with Orchestra Nova. Schumitzky plays first violin for Orange County’s Pacific Symphony and the Hollywood Bowl. Breene plays cello with the Hollywood Bowl.

Both Schumitzky and Breene studied at Juilliard while Irawati studied at Yale and the Cleveland Institute of Music.