Four Last Songs: NZTrio and soprano Emma Pearson in marvellous musical accord

The NZTrio were all energy and focus as they launched into Elena Kats-Chernin's three movement work, The Spirit and the Maiden, in their recent Wellington concert for Chamber Music New Zealand. The ensemble, in their new line-up of Amalia Hall (violin), Matthias Balzat (cello) and Somi Kim (piano), delivered a crackling concert with four varied and interesting repertoire choices before the 'main event', Strauss' beloved Four Last Songs in a new arrangement by New Zealand composer Salina Fisher.

Kats-Chernin is very well-known to Australian audiences but we've not heard much of her music in Aotearoa. Born in Tashkent, now capital of independent Uzbekistan, she migrated with her Jewish family to Australia in 1975, studied at the Sydney Conservatorium, then in Germany. She returned to Australia in 1994 after many active composing years in Europe, and has become a familiar voice in Australian music, composing operas, ballets, commissions from most Australian orchestras and having her music included in the Sydney Olympics 2000, the 2003 Rugby World Cup and the closing ceremony of the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Uzbek/Australian composer Elena Kats-Chernin

“…her forthright piano trio The Spirit and the Maiden is full of urgent momentum.”

Her forthright piano trio, full of urgent momentum in the first two movements, revealed the NZTrio playing at a new and thrilling level. The third movement, a little held back in tempo, has a quasi-modal language, with hints of folk and jazz, and here the Trio showed their marvellous rapport, three romantic melodic lines intertwined and a big strong concerted sound before the work's mysterious ending.

Salina Fisher's beautiful Kintsugi was commissioned by the NZTrio and has had, since its 2020 premiere, numerous performances worldwide, both as a piano trio and in the orchestral version, the latter commissioned by the Manukau Symphony Orchestra and subsequently performed by NZSO and orchestras in Kentucky, New York and Ottawa.

The title refers to the ancient Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold. When the work was premiered, Fisher explained that kintsugi is a “metaphor for embracing 'brokenness' and imperfection as a source of strength.”

I've experienced Kintsugi several times in both trio and orchestral versions. This performance was, I believe, the best I've heard, poignant and thoughtful, drawing the audience into its lovely sound world. A pin-drop silence fell as the end approached, Kim's piano flourishes gently coloured, Balzat's cello singing the melodic lead, Hall's violin answering and the ending magically light and quiet.

Soprano Emma Pearson joined the Trio for the rest of the programme. Well-known to New Zealand audiences, particularly for her work with opera, Pearson's glowing voice proved equally delightful in this chamber music setting, revealing her range of dynamics and colour, expressive drama and impeccable diction. It was a pleasure sitting close to the stage for the Two Songs Opus 100, written by American composer Amy Beach in 1924.

Beach’s Songs are lyrical and a little sad, descriptions of nature in the poetic text of “A mirage”, romantic instrumental word-painting of wind and darkness in “Stella Viatoris”. The second song builds to a big climax with the optimistic words “There’s a single star/Like the kindness of God/Shining thro’”. 

The first half of the programme ended with more beauty, a wordless Vocalise by Rachmaninoff, its dreamy flowing lines performed with great sensitivity by Pearson and the accompanying Trio.

The well-curated programme, billed as Four Last Songs, devoted the whole second half to Strauss’ masterpiece, written by the 84-year-old composer as orchestral songs of farewell, suffused with reflective wisdom and peaceful serenity. Pianist Somi Kim, who has performed the posthumous arrangement of the work for soprano and piano numerous times, suggested a piano trio arrangement to composer Salina Fisher. Fisher was an inspired choice, a composer who has amply demonstrated her own facility with orchestration with the musical imagination to interpret Strauss’s intentions.

Composer Salina Fisher

“..a highly successful arrangement of Strauss’s Four Last Songs for piano trio and soprano.”

Image credit: Hagen Hopkins

In a recent interview Fisher told me “I made a conscious choice to keep as closely as I could to the original score, in terms of having (almost) all the notes there, somehow, and voicing in ways that I hope match the orchestra’s balance.” She acknowledges that there were many composerly decisions to be made about balance, phrasing and so on, and that although the Trio gave her licence to “get creative”, she chose not to “change” anything or add her own style.

The result is highly successful, the arrangement for three instruments sounding full, lush and Straussian, with all of the original composer’s character and romantic flow. It has, too, a lovely clarity, enabling the listener to hear special instrumental effects – the replacement with trilling piano of the lovely bird-like woodwinds in the final song, for instance, worked perfectly.

The Trio’s interpretation was splendidly flexible, with enormous care over the shaping of phrases and quality attention paid to ensemble work by musicians already in exceptional accord. Kim is a great accompanist and we saw the collaborative pianist at work, leading the ensemble in this role.

Composer Richard Strauss (1864-1949)

“…his Four Last Songs are suffused with reflective wisdom and peaceful serenity.”

Image credit: Ferdinand Smutzer

Emma Pearson was a fine choice for the Four Last Songs, her characterisation full of operatic flair, her big voice soaring over the ensemble yet intimate in its expressive use of vocal colour. The emotional ‘rightness’ and depth of the performance from all four musicians was extremely affecting.

The musicians stayed with Strauss for their well-chosen encore, his Morgen! (Tomorrow!). The “Four Last Songs” tour will end this week with performances in New Plymouth, Hamilton, Christchurch and Nelson. Not to be missed!

Chamber Music New Zealand “Four Last Songs” tour, NZ Trio and soprano Emma Pearson, Wellington 11 October 2025.

Concerts still to come in New Plymouth (14 October), Hamilton (16 October), Christchurch (17 October) and Nelson (18 October). Booking details here.