The Fire Pink Trio Bring Warmth and Color to a Cold Night

Last night in the Lincoln Center neighborhood, the Fire Pink Trio defied the deep freeze with a fascinating performance that was by turns lively, kinetic and balmy, sponsored by the New York Viola Society. Flutist Debra Reuter-Pivetta, violist Sheila Browne and concert harpist Jacquelyn Bartlett began the evening with Doppler Effect, by Adrienne Albert. Essentially, what the composer does with the effect is very clever – she turns it into a vamp, which the trio latched onto with a verve that matched Albert’s intention of evoking a busy pedestrian plaza in Rome, and the challenge of finding calm amidst the bustle. This purposeful and nonchalantly catchy piece gave Reuter-Pivetta and Browne a chance to air out their resonant lower registers against Bartlett’s rhythmic drive, with  some droll glissandoing doppler effects finally appearing as the bluster reached a crescendo.

Next on the bill was Dan Locklair’s Dream Steps, a five-part ballet suite. The trio lept agilely through a demandingly eclectic if melodically bright series of variations that ran the gamut from hints of Italian folk music, the baroque, tango, gospel and blues. Despite the physical challenges of the piece, the group went straight into Debussy’s Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp without an intermission, perhaps lured by its summery sway. In explaining the piece to the audience, Bartlett emphasized the irony behind its enveloping dreaminess, that Debussy was close to death, and probably closer to enemy lines than he knew, when he wrote it at the seaside in 1915. The trio played up the wary/calm dichotomy between viola and flute in the opening pastorale, picked up with a lustrous, wave-like motion on the “minuet” in the middle and then the allegro finale which they made as straightforward and incisive as it was bubbly.

Groups such as this one, who have less to choose from the standard repertoire simply because of their instrumentation, seldom exhibit the kind of intuitive chemistry this ensemble displayed throughout the concert. The Fire Pink Trio have an album due out this spring; and the New York Viola Society maintains an active concert schedule that champions works showcasing the instrument.