On Nov. 28, the St. John-Mercer-Park Trio dazzled the audience at the Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre with the premiere of composer Kevin Lau’s new album, Under a Veil of Stars.
The night opened with cellist Rachel Mercer and violinist Scott St. John, performing Lau’s Intuitions no. 2. It became immediately apparent from this work that the concert would be one of many contrasts: in one moment a slow and contemplative cello supported a drifting violin, only to become intensely rhythmic, facing off against a combative violin just moments later. Their dynamic variations and antiphonal refrains were a testament to their incredible collaborative talents.
Rachel Mercer (Photo by Curtis Perry)
The intimacy of the Carleton Dominion-Chalmers Centre allowed the audience to appreciate the visual synergy of the performers’ musical personalities as well. St. John drew attention with his purple dress shirt and exaggerated body movements, swaying his torso in time with his bowing, stepping back and forth to emphasize melodic activity, and tapping his seemingly jewel encrusted dress shoes gently against the ground at moments of musical emphasis. Mercer, meanwhile, remained still and concentrated. Save for the vague glittery pattern of her shirt, she was clad in all black, diverting audience attention to the tension on her face and the gravitas of her performance.
As the work concluded, Lau himself appeared to introduce the album and its titular three-movement piece. Under a Veil of Stars is a cosmic experience, Lau’s self-purported attempt to open a portal into the unique world of music. Pianist Angela Park joined the musicians on stage, her black and white blouse creating a visual balance between the other performers that echoed the themes of synergy.
The first movement, The Stars are Never Still, is based on a short story in which a girl who loves catching stars finds one that continues to elude her. When she finally catches the star, its light dwindles: a loss of childhood innocence. The trio transitioned easily between airy playfulness, dramatic chase-like melodies with lots of tremolo, and a slower conclusion to portray themes of this story. The melody was shared by the three instruments. In a private conversation at intermission, Lau described this compositional choice as making reference to well-established chamber music traditions. Park played in a flighty, flourish-heavy style, which she maintained throughout the concert. Lau described her playing as the manifestation of a “cosmic being.”
Kevin Lau (Photo by Curtis Perry)
The shared melodies continued through the second movement, which conjured the resentment and frustrations of adulthood through sharp violin stings and more aggressive tremolo. The melodic exchanges were less present in the third movement, whose focus is the cello solo. It depicts a moment of contemplation that precedes death. This movement demonstrated the trio’s excellent use of silence, stillness, and long-drawn notes to accentuate emotion.
Following intermission, the trio performed the Ravel Piano Trio. With tremolos, melodic jumps, and arcing stories similar to Lau’s piece, it was easy to draw comparisons between the early 20th century work and the contemporary premiere. Where Ravel’s work has a kind of raw musical grandeur that awes and overpowers the listener with its richness, Lau’s work uses the grandeur of the cosmos theme to tap into universal truths and relate to the listener on an individual level. Even if their life is tiny in the grand scheme of the universe, their emotions and experiences carry significance, Lau suggests.
A Simple Secret is another gem from the new album that reins in the complexity for a short, sincere finale. No encore at this show. With the otherworldly journey the audience had gone through, the only suitable encore was the blast of cold, late-November air that greeted them at the exit. A stark reminder that the everyday world in which they live can be filled with just as much wonder as that of the musical world they’d just left behind.
Ottawa Chamberfest
https://www.chamberfest.com/
