The sisters who make up the Ahn Trio (Lucia, Angella and Maria Ahn -- playing piano, violin and cello, respectively) are not your typical chamber musicians. Granted, they play all the standard works for piano trio -- and play it exceptionally well, too -- but they have also come up with a novel program, called "Ahn Plugged," that is unconventional, to say the least.
The group's main goals with "Ahn Plugged" is to widen the musical horizons of audiences and to show that classical music can be fun. They also want to give contemporary composers a chance to get their music performed.The trio has been touring with "Ahn Plugged" (they took the name from MTV's "Unplugged" concerts, of course) for several years now, and Saturday evening they finally brought it to Salt Lake City.
An interesting thing about "Ahn Plugged" is that the three sisters never play exactly the same music at each concert. They choose from a group of pieces, and Angella announces them from the stage.
The music they play in their "Ahn Plugged" program is all amplified. They started the "Ahn Plugged" segment Saturday with a one-movement piece called "The Diamond World" by Eric Ewazen. This is a very melodic piece with romantic harmonies, and the melodies owe a lot to rock music for their rhythmic structure and drive.
The second work was another one-movement piece titled "The Slow Dance" by Kenji Bunch. This is a brooding piece that has the feel of a jazz ballad. It starts out slowly, then gradually builds to a climax before it returns to a variation of the opening idea. But the overall feeling of melancholia never leaves the music. It's almost a set of variations on a mood.
The final selection was two tangos by the Argentinian composer Astor Piazzola. The group played "Autumn" and "Spring" from his "Four Seasons" for String Trio. As a composer, Piazzola took the tango and expanded and transformed it -- giving it an air of respectability in the process -- and brought it into the concert hall. And he wrote tangos for just about every conceivable combination of instruments.
The two pieces that the Ahn Trio played were exciting and powerful examples of the intensity and sheer energy of Piazzola's music. Both cleverly reflect the seasons they represent. "Autumn" was moody and dark, and "Spring" was warm, optimistic and full of life.
"Ahn Plugged" made up the second half of the concert. For the first half, the group played a more traditional program made up of Beethoven's Trio no. 1, op. 1 in E flat major and Leonard Bernstein's Piano Trio.
The sisters gave an uninhibited performance of the Beethoven piece. The fast movements were spirited and carefree, the slow movement with poignancy.
The Bernstein is an early work, written in 1937, when the composer was only 19. The two outer movements of this trio are technically demanding for the performers, and the music is intense and dynamic, whereas the middle movement is a set of variations on a marchlike tune that has a bluesy feel to it.
The trio received a boisterous standing ovation and rewarded their audience with a surprisingly effective arrangement of "Hey Jude," to end the evening on a light and happy note.