Going Dutch

Ensemble Music Society presents Osiris
Indiana History Center
Feb. 23

As a moniker, “Osiris” is potently more catchy than “The Osiris Trio” — evidently the feelings of its current all-female threesome. Violinist Tinta Schmidt von Altenstadt, cellist Larissa Groeneveld and pianist Ellen Corver comprise Osiris, an all Dutch trio established in Amsterdam in 1988 and appearing here last Wednesday. The name paradoxically derives from the ancient Egyptian god of the underworld: husband and brother of Isis. Why these consummate musicians would latch onto a mythological, incestuous male — though surely incidental and unimportant — remains nonetheless intriguing.

As a “piano” trio, Osiris ranks among the best performing groups that presenter Pamela Steele and her Ensemble Music Society have brought us in many a concert. Their engaging program centers on works of two Swiss composers: Ernest Bloch (1880-1959) and Frank Martin (1890-1974), but the evening’s major offering is Dvorak’s Piano Trio in F Minor, Op. 65 (1883). One of the Czech composer’s most ambitious large-scale compositions, it seems to me obviously inspired by Brahms’ equally daunting F Minor Piano Quintet, written some 20 years earlier.

From its plaintive opening, the Osiris players successfully play up the movement’s incessant drama. Groenveld’s cello then takes up the more hopeful D-flat second subject. The drama returns in the development section, the piano providing a kaleidoscopic variety of textures. The many Brahmsian progressions help cement the relation between these composers. Altenstadt’s tone is a bit less rich than that of her cellist partner, but her ensemble work is all but peerless.

The following Scherzo is a plaintive, multirhythmic (two against three), C-sharp minor structure which our players toss off with apparent ease — again a favorite Brahms device. Occasional agitation interrupts the reverie in the serenely lovely slow movement. Altenstadt now carries much of the melodic line, sounding richer than earlier. Corver’s piano takes a more dominant role in the Finale. Here we have more than a suggestion of Schubert, another telling figure in Dvorak’s compositional evolution. The movement offers several “fause reprises” — where you keep expecting its final chord, and you don’t get it ... yet, a device dating back to Haydn. Osiris fully brings this too-little-played, 40-minute work to life.

The players open with Beethoven’s last published piece in the genre, No. 11 in G, Op. 121a, the so called “Kakadu” Trio dating from 1813. Compared with the composer’s “Ghost” and “Archduke” trios, this one fails to storm the heavens: 10 variations on a song by the “great” Wenzel Müller (who actually nobody’s ever heard of). Lots of mature writing, however, pervades this comedically inclined variation set; Beethoven can seem powerful even when he’s not trying. Altenstadt and Groeneveld take turns carrying the lines before all three join in a final “jam session.”

Bloch’s Three Nocturnes (1924) follow, with Osiris delivering its richest timbres over an impressionistic underpinning. In the middle nocturne, Altenstadt and Groeneveld once again nicely interplay with lines and textures. Then, before intermission, we hear Martin’s Trio on Irish Folk Tunes (1925), a three-tune piece where rhythm takes front and center in each, and our players take full command in all.

The Ensemble Society next presents the Imani Winds on March 16.