Music Chamber

Piano Trio in G major, K564 - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

Allegro ~ Andante ~ Allegretto

 

This piano trio was Mozart’s last venture into the piano trio medium and in many ways it is far from typical. This has given rise to much speculation as to its origins, with various suggestions that it began life as a violin sonata or a solo piano sonata, but we know that the trio we hear today was written as the last of three pieces in 1788. The first movement opens with a jovial first subject and this gives way to a second subject which is more like a variant of the first subject rather than a new idea. Unusually the second subject appears in the development section, unchanged except for a modulation to the subdominant. The slow movement consists of a 16 bar theme with six variations and this is followed by a lively final movement in rondo form. © Christine Talbot-Cooper 2012

 

Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello No 1 in D minor, Op 32 –  Anton Stepanovich Arensky (1861-1906)

Allegro moderato ~ Scherzo (Allegro molto) ~ Elegia (Adagio) ~ Finale

 

Arensky composed this trio in 1894 and it reflects the romantic musical language which was still in vogue as the 19th century drew to its close. It is dedicated to the Russian cellist and composer Karl Davydov who had died in 1889. Davydov had also been head of the St Petersburg Conservatory where Arensky had been taught by Rimsky-Korsakov. Arensky later became a professor at Moscow Conservatory where his pupils included Scriabin and Rachmaninov but although this was a time when nationalism in music was very strong, his own music was not particularly Russian in character. The first movement is in sonata form and features both lyricism and passionate outbursts, ending with an adagio based on the principal theme. The piano takes centre stage in the scherzo but the strings come into their own in the middle section. The outer sections of the Elegy are in the minor key and make use of dotted rhythms in the manner of a funeral march. However the middle section in the major key provides a more hopeful theme, which can also be heard again in the final movement alongside an adagio return of the opening theme,  before the work concludes allegro molto. © Christine Talbot-Cooper 2012

 

Piano Trio no 2 in E minor, Op 67 - Dimitri Shostakovich (1906-1975)

Andante ~ Allegro con brio ~ Largo ~ Allegretto

 

Shostakovich's Second Piano Trio, was written in 1944, one year after his eighth symphony and was dedicated to his friend, the music scholar Ivan Sollertinsky, who died in a Nazi prison camp. Much of the work was composed in Leningrad during the German siege and like all the works of this period the theme is influenced by the brutality and futility of war. The first movement begins with muted harmonics played by the cello from which the main theme emerges. The movement is in sonata form and suggests the calm before the storm,  which comes in the second movement in the form of a driven scherzo in F sharp major. The slow movement is a chaconne in B flat minor, built on the repetition of eight chords played by the piano, with the violin and cello adding their own sad reflections. This leads without a break into the final movement with its menacing theme and driving rhythms, broken only by a return of the opening theme of the work and the eight funeral chords of the chaconne. © Christine Talbot-Cooper 2012

 

The Mediterranea Trio was established at the Royal College of Music in 2007 by pianist Elenlucia Pappalardo, violinist Markella Vandoros and cellist Alessandro Sanguineti. The Trio has been coached by Andrew Ball, the Chilingirian Quartet, Gordon Fergus-Thompson, Yuri Zhislin, David Dolan, Geoffrey Govier and Kathron Sturrock and has participated in masterclasses with Susan Tomes and David Waterman at King's Place, Eckart Heiligers, Alexander Malosh, Peter Cropper, Moray Welsh and Simon Rowland-Jones. After its debut at the National Gallery, the Mediterranea Trio went on to perform at venues such as St Martin-in-the-Fields, Cheltenham Town Hall, St James’s Piccadilly, V&A Museum, Sundial Theatre, Farnham Castle, the Forge, Foundling Museum, Britten Theatre and the Balliol College Hall in Oxford. It also took part in the Earl's Court Festival 2011, the Chilingirian Chamberfest 2009 and the Chilingirian Mozart Festival 2011, the Bedford Park Festival and the Exhibition Road Music Day 2010. Future engagements include concerts for the Benslow Music Trust and the Bath Recital Artists’ Trust, as well as two concerts for the Associazione Amici della Musica, in Trapani, Italy. The Mediterranea Trio would like to express its gratitude to Philip Carne and the Richard Carne Trust for their generous support.  The Mediterranea Trio holds student membership of the Piano Trio Society.