Cranleigh School’s St George’s Day celebrations came to a resounding end with a programme of lyrical and, in some cases, intensely bold and forthright German and Czech music which was supplemented by a startlingly beautiful encore by the twentieth-century English composer Cecil Armstrong Gibbs. The London Piano Trio, despite incorporating three dramatically different musical personalities, combined to create an exhilarating sense of stylistic unity as well as evident sympathy for generating a striking sense of musical dialogue. The players also revelled in the profound emotional lyricism of Classical and Romantic chamber music and lent an unmistakable hint of a nineteenth-century Russian accent to much of the repertoire. The Merriman Music School audience was noticeably charmed by the ensemble’s placid assurance and ability to make such complex repertoire appear technically simple despite its poignant musical depth.

 

The contrast between the dreamy elegiac qualities of much of the work and the rhythmical interjections from the sound world of rustic folk dance in Dvořák’s Piano Trio in E (the last and best known of the composer’s piano trios, dating from towards the end of his nationalistic period) made it the most ideally suited to the ensemble’s collective musical character. Indeed, the music provided the audience and players with a consistently fresh array of ideas (facilitated in part by the curious complete absence of sonata form or a set of variations) which was explicitly intended by the composer and made clear by the title given to the work – ‘Dumky’ – meaning ‘fleeting thoughts’.  The dynamically arch-like structure of the opening ‘Lento maestoso’ movement was particularly well communicated and the rapturous climax was pleasingly arresting, as was Robert Atchison’s playing of the beautiful soaring, yet whispering, lines at the height of the violin’s range in the third, ‘Andante’, movement. The final movement was notable, most strikingly for the commendable projection of the tempestuous high point which explodes rather unexpectedly whilst retaining the ‘Lento maestoso’ direction. The thick Brahmsian textures were much enjoyed by players and listeners alike.

 

The programme opened with a stern, almost menacing at times, account of Mozart’s Piano Trio in C Major, K. 548. Reflecting the ambiguities of a particularly gloomy and uncertain time towards the end of Mozart’s life, in the late 1780s, the first movement was given a suitably stately and texturally full-bodied performance which incorporated a seemingly effortless sense of rhetorical gesture in the lively passages of dialogue between all three players. The second movement, with its heartfelt and gloriously lyrical theme was played with admirable passion and drive and provided a markedly attractive textural dichotomy with the simple innocence of the accompanying Alberti Bass. The characteristically Mozartian feminine endings of the second movement were executed in appositely calm, stroking gestures and the slight emphasis on the humorous chromatic appoggiaturas added a more positive vein to the work, gaving increased substance to Mozart’s light and playful writing which was perhaps an acknowledgment of the composer’s own good fortune, a result of the kindness of others, in adversity.

 

Franz Schubert’s Piano Trio No. 1 in B flat major, D. 898, despite having been written at a time of seriously ill health late in the composer’s life, has qualities which make, in the words of Robert Schumann, ‘the troubles of our world disappear and all the world is bright and fresh again’. The grand, positive opening, with a touch of ‘Who is Sylvia?’ in the left hand of the piano writing, was given a suitably energetic performance from pianist Olga Dudnik in particular, and comfortably led one into the ensuing warm modulation which was accomplished with impeccable assurance whilst noticeably making those members of the audience unfamiliar with the work sit up intently before the dramatic resolution into the new key. The second movement gave cellist Bozidar Vukotic the best opportunity to demonstrate the ’cello’s genuine ability to sing as he became noticeably emotionally engaged in a passionately rich, soaring melody, with bold and dense accompanying piano chords, which was then imitated by the violin to form a complex contrapuntal movement which could be enjoyed with remarkably little need for analytical thought! 

 

The Cranleigh audience was most privileged to witness such technically assured playing and an emotionally deeply stirring account of little-known repertoire by first-rate composers. The wonderfully rhapsodic and bucolic sound world and enchanting modality of the encore was far more than a mere postscript and framed an evening of beautiful playing with immeasurable character which, undoubtedly, inspired many young musicians to make even more fascinating musical discoveries.

 

TPM