Lammermuir Festival: Trio Gaspard I
North Esk Church, Musselburgh - 13/09/23
Trio Gaspard’s first outing at the Lammermuir Festival, at North Esk Church in Musselburgh on the afternoon of 13th, was an all-Czech programme of 3 pieces for piano trio, by Smetana, Suk and Dvořák. Trio Gaspard comprises violinist Jonian Ilias Kadesha (whose solo Bach had wowed a Coffee Concert audience two days previously), cellist Vashti Hunter and pianist Nicholas Rimmer.
Smetana’s Piano Trio in G minor is dedicated to the memory of his eldest daughter Bedřiška, who had died before her fifth birthday, and begins with a desolate violin solo sul-G in D-minor, representing deep anguish and grief, a theme which recurs throughout the work. However, the work is far from unrelenting elegy and the second theme on cello is far from gloomy, later developing to a dance-like più animato (Smetana loved dancing and was, by all accounts, a fair hoofer). This was a first hearing of the piece for me and I must say it is an absolute gem. The ensemble chamber playing was gloriously committed and immersive and there was a sense of direct connection with the composer, candidly unburdening his innermost soul. The second movement, a scampering rustic dance with lyrical conversational episodes, including a glorious love duet between violin and cello and a ghostlier anxious interlude, returning to a less carefree form of the dance, brought to an abrupt close by three emphatic chords: “that’s enough of that”! The Presto finale is another dance, a tarantella rondo with lyrical episodes, initiated by the cello and taken up in conversation by the others. One of these is a funeral march and it seems as if the overwhelming grief has won. However, after an intense impassioned climax, the tarantella makes a teasing false start, cut short by a final flourish. This is a super piece and I cannot imagine a finer advocacy of it.
The pianist Nicholas spoke of the Josef Suk ‘dynasty’, from the father of the composer, through to his grandson, the famous violinist, whom both he and the violinist Jonian had met as an adjudicator in competitions they had taken part in. Suk’s Elegy is his only work for piano trio, written for a memorial event for the Czech writer Julius Zeyer in 1902. Sombre slow piano chords support an upward searching melody on violin, joined by the cello high in its register, in a tender Late Romantic style. A more turbulent impassioned central section briefly succumbs to grief, then subsides to a calm acceptance. The morendo ending was quite magical. Very moving and another first listen.
After the interval Dvořák’s ever-popular ‘Dumky’ Trio in E-minor continued the theme of exploration of the Slavic soul. The dumka is an originally Ukrainian song, contrasting a lament of life’s woes and injustices with a musical shrug and a “life goes on; let’s have a knees-up” – a creditable attitude in my book. The nearest Irish equivalent is the aphorism “sure, ye’ll be a long time dead”, the tacit implication being “drink up and have another”. Dvořák adapts the form to a Bohemian outlook and his own melodic flair, fashioning no fewer than 6 dumky into a Piano Trio of great expressive character and not a little whimsy. I knew it would be good and it was, frankly, thoroughly marvellous. The three played their hearts out with the same commitment that had characterised the Smetana and Suk, excelling not only in performance but also in communication.
As an encore and a teasing appetiser for their following morning’s Coffee Concert with two Haydn trios on the menu, the gloriously gleeful Presto from his C-major Trio Hob. XV 27 was their scrumptious parting shot. Perfect.
Cover photo: Andrej Grilc