Walsh-Drucker-Cooper Trio: Press

Trio's Shostakovich at Natural History Museum
by Cecelia Porter

Pianist Diane Walsh, violinist Eugene Drucker (a founding member of the Emerson String Quartet), and cellist Roberta Cooper played at the National Museum of Natural History on Saturday. Formed in 2001, the trio gave stellar accounts of three works for their combination: Shostakovich’s Op. 67 in E minor, Mendelssohn’s Op. 66 in C Minor and Mozart’s K. 542 in E major.

Composed in 1944, Shostakovich’s heady work offers bleak, unforgiving testimony to the atrocities inflicted on Russia during World War Two. It is not simply the music’s staggering rush of pathos and outspoken grief that overwhelm the listener. The musicians dove far into the music’s unrelenting rhythmic drive and razor-sharp linear logic that pulls you into the midst of the action. A searing, high-pitched cello opened the plaintive Andante, the sonic effect slashing through the soul. Walsh’s percussive keyboard sharpened even more the bite of the bows in the finale’s sardonic dance, its tension never resolved.

Coupling Shostakovich’s tragic narrative with the Mozart and Mendelssohn is a daunting challenge, for the last two speak languages of earlier eras. Unlike Shostakovich, Mozart etched his piece with nuanced delicacy, the players attending to its graceful inflections and pellucid textures. By contrast, Mendelssohn’s piece begins with an agitated Allegro roiling in a sea of emotional cross-currents, the turbulence continuing through to the finale.

"New York trio delivers passion, excitement in Sunday concert"

The Unitarian Church was filled with the power and passion of Mendelssohn Sunday afternoon, as well as a capacity audience. Cellist Roberta Cooper, violinist Eugene Drucker and pianist Diane Walsh played with the technique, musical cohesion and sensitivity to give this Romantic masterpiece its grandeur.

Walsh plays with an unusually clean sound and sure technique; Drucker has a warm and sensual sound and overt expressiveness; while Cooper has a warm sound and a direct expressiveness.

The trio's approach was direct and simple. They were clearly listening to each other, and they were living the music as they played it.
December 19, 2006

It was world-class music making that would have been welcome in any music hall on the globe. From the opening notes of the Haydn Trio in e minor, there was an active, involved musical communication going on....and intelligent shaping of the melodic content that in no way obscured the clarity of the discourse. Walsh played with restraint and polish. Drucker proved scrupulous in his attention to musical rhythms and values and ... clean crisp technique. Cooper displayed a rich but not overpowering sound.

[In Bartok's 1921 Sonata No. 1 for violin and piano] Drucker's tone was in its element, and his laser-clear delineation of the work's staggering complexity was a marvel to hear. Walsh was with him every step of the way; her sound palette broadened to accommodate everyting Bartok asked for, from rippling impressionistic effects to crashing, grinding chords.

After intermission, Cooper rejoined her colleagues for another superb performance, this time of the infrequently heard Dvorak Trio in f minor. This performance was filled to the brim with honest and compelling musical communication. Walsh showed strength, finesse and a wonderfully involving range of tonal shadings at the keyboard. Cooper's beautiful sound production and soulful approach was a wonderful complement to Drucker's analytical but emotionally involved playing. There was a near-instantaneous standing ovation.
August 10, 2002

The major work...was Beethoven's Piano Trio in E-flat Major, Opus 70, No. 2, a substantial work from the composer's middle period that is full of power. Monday's performance reveled in Beethoven's passion and grandeur. Pianist Diane Walsh played with clarity, power and rhythmic freedom; Drucker added his silky expressive tone lyrically, while Cooper delivered expressiveness and substance.

The three were obviously comfortable with this music, and that allowed them to deliver its power... [T]hey seemed to delight in Beethoven's contrasts and suddenness, ending with a rousing finale.

[In] Haydn's charming Trio in f-sharp minor, Hob. XV: 26, written just 16 years before the Beethoven...the trio's performance was cohesive and hearty. The slow movement, Adagio cantabile, was particularly expressive and lyrically beautiful.

Drucker and Walsh offered a passionate performance of Serge Prokofiev's Sonata in D Major, Opus 94a, for violin and piano. Drucker successfully contrasted the salty virtuosic passages with beautifully lyrical ones. Walsh delivered drive, clarity and power, and the result was quite exciting - save for the sensual and lyrical slow movement - Andante.
February 22, 2006

The Cello Sonata in E minor, Op. 38, of Brahms was given an effective performance by cellist Roberta Cooper and pianist Diane Walsh. Cooper displays a lovely, generous tone that contrasted nicely with Walsh's crisp keyboard clarity. Their moderately paced traversal of one of two Brahms cello sonatas was a lyrical view of this work.

Violinist Eugene Drucker, of the Emerson Quartet, was Walsh's next partner. Their collaborative effort was the Prokofiev Sonata in D, originally written for the [flute] but reworked by the composer and master violinist David Oistrakh. Drucker was more than equal to the challenge and an ideal exponent for this piece. His technique showed him capable of tossing off the most formidable phrases with ease, and his steely tone perfectly fit Prokofiev's sound world.

Walsh was a great asset here as well. Lesser pianists too often attack the challenging keyboard part with sheer volume and clangorous, ill-defined energy. Walsh's performance of this challenging score was all clarity and lucidity. The duo was awarded a long ovation.
August 6, 2004

Walsh's flawless finger work, pellucid tone and sheer performance elegance set a high standard for festival performance. Cooper's lovely tone and warm phrasing toed that Mozart line of clarity.

The [Strauss Violin Sonata] is active, leaping, athletic music--a technical minefield-- but Eugene Drucker conquered it with apparent ease, as well as executional grace and an overriding sense of good taste....
Walsh took the somewhat Herculean piano part and made it sound if not easy, at least convincing and well-balanced...Drucker and Walsh's performance tamed the work and rendered it honestly and compellingly.
August 8, 2003

Faure's large-scale Sonata in A major for Violin and Piano proved a worthy vehicle for Drucker to display his talents as a soloist...His technical skills, as you might expect for one who sits upon the throne of arguably the best professional string quartet today, are superior--nailing the lively octave passages in the opening movement with ease of fingers and pitch and spinning out the tricky dotted-rhythmic figures of the charming opening melodic passage in the finale with grace and ease.

Diane Walsh, the remarkable pianist...hung onto the violinist's every phrase, creating a deep and spontaneous synergy....

Walsh...was especially impressive in the Mozart Piano Trio in E major, which opened the program and with which she stole the show with her elegant delicacy of tone and graceful virtuosity in the many ornaments in this work. Indeed, she can breathe magic and anima into even the most innocent-sounding phrases--such as the busy, rococo tune of the slow movement, in which she executed the busy turns and trills in the most tasteful manner.
August 10, 2001