Back at Bargemusic

It had been nearly a year since I'd been to Bargemusic, the floating concert hall docked at the Fulton Street pier in Brooklyn, so it was a great pleasure in any case to be back there last Saturday night.  They have even acquired new chairs in the interval, so to all the other pleasures of the Barge--that is, classical music in an intimate setting, the stupendous view of the Manhattan skyline out the glass wall behind the stage, air-conditioned splendor in summer and congenial warmth in winter, and the occasional gentle rocking of the boat--one can now add seating comfort.

But simply being back in this delightful setting was not enough to account for my exuberance last Saturday.  That can be attributed to the three musicians: Mark Peskanov on violin, Nicholas Canellakis on cello, and Adam Golka on piano.  Together, they selected and performed the kind of program that I only get to hear about once out of every thirty or forty tries--a program in which everything seems both perfect and exciting.

They began with Mozart's Piano Trio in G major, which was fine, and probably the draw for most people.  But the real excitement came with the next two pieces.  Canellakis and Golka played Chopin's Sonata for piano and cello with such verve and complicity that I was practically bouncing in my seat with enthusiasm.  They seemed born to play this music, and to play it together: that's how right the performance felt.  And then Peskanov joined them for the last piece, a spirited, intense rendering of Tchaikovsky's Piano Trio in A minor.  The speedy virtuosic bits were thrilling enough, but the subdued, mournful ending was, in its own way, even more so.  I am always surprised when I love Tchaikovsky (I forget, that is, that he can move me in this way), and here it was again, that enormously pleasurable surprise, brought on by the commendable teamwork of these great musicians.  Bravo, Bargemusic!