★★★½☆ Snapshots from Beethoven’s career, dispatched with refinement and sensitivity.

Turramurra Uniting Church
September 18, 2016

Pianist Kathryn Selby kicked off the fourth national tour of her chamber series Selby and Friends in the Turramurra Uniting Church with Basically Beethoven #3, an all-Beethoven concert in which she was joined by the male half of the Goldner String Quartet – violinist Dene Olding and cellist Julian Smiles.

Against the white-noise of rain on the roof, the trio spanned 25 years of Beethoven’s career, from his first opus to the C Major Cello Sonata of his Opus 102.

^{Pianist Kathryn Selby}

Selby followed close on the heels of Smiles’ honey-toned cello entry, her tone bright (though the sound of the piano was muddied slightly in the church’s acoustic). As a duo, the two musicians dug into the vigorous entry of the first movement’s Allegro vivace, Smile’s attacks full of crisp clarity. In the second movement, Smiles’ low register was a wave of warm sound with Selby’s piano creeping over the top.

The pair was joined on stage by Olding for the Piano Trio in G Major Op. 1 No 2, his sound cutting through the...