When the Bechstein Hall opened, it did so with a resident Trio in place comprising Emmanuel Despax, Guy Johnston, and Priya Mitchell who will now perform regularly there. The Hall also prides itself on its cuisine, and their latest programme of Fauré, Beethoven and Mendelssohn provided a three-course menu of highly contrasted flavours and textures presented with both passion and impeccable artistic taste. This really was a musical feast.
The Fauré Piano Trio is an intriguing work from a composer who reckoned on ‘pushing back the boundaries of refinement.’ The surging, pulsing performance it received put paid to the notion, though, that this late work was an etiolated offering from a man in failing health and hearing. The first movement had real drive throughout, and the fierce energy of the third bracketed the exquisite inspiration of the middle andantino. Crucially the players did not linger, and gave real shape to the long-breathed, elliptical melodies, avoiding the sentimentality that sometimes can make this seem like salon music rather than the shifting, poised, dappled patterns of melancholy and wistfulness that the composer intended.
Beethoven’s ‘Ghost’ Trio takes its name from the astonishing shape and sonic effects of its long middle movement. Whether or not it recycles music intended for an never-completed operatic treatment of Macbeth, it is a truly unique impressionistic inspiration unlike anything else in Beethoven’s middle-period output, almost like film-music. Extensive chromaticism, elaborate trills at both ends of the keyboard, and weird exchanges of elusive, brief, wispy string motifs are certainly spooky, but also hard to shape into a coherent statement. What impressed here was the unity of purpose between the players, the careful attention to variation of dynamics, and the keen collaboration and listening out for resonant harmonics. The outer movements provided the neccessary contrast of brisk, bristling, biting, bustle, with Mitchell in particular so physically involved you feared her sliding chair might collide with the piano.
Mendelssohn’s first Piano Trio is no tailpiece, but a major statement of intent in its own right. The writing is virtuosic for all three instruments, with the piano part especially torrential and showy. However, even in the outer movements, these qualities need to be paired with a sense of tasteful proportion, wit, and sweetness that are equally central to the composer’s musical palate. The three performers were very much at home in this ambience, and found the exact balance of qualities needed to finesse both display and tenderness. Likewise, in the inner movements there was bravura in the scherzo without heavy-handedness; and the slow movement floated past in a seamless, but always purposeful manner, appropriate, as my companion said, to what is essentially another ‘song without words.’
This was chamber music playing of the highest order in works that are both individually demanding and very different from one another in the kind of sound worlds that need to emerge. It is hugely impressive that this new trio were able to give such distinguished performances of such distinctive trios. Each player is a renowned soloist of strong personality, and yet their careful coordination and attention to each other and to the mutuality of the music ensured a collective surefootedness and unity of affect that many long-established groupings would be delighted to display.
Performers: Emmanuel Despax, Guy Johnston, Priya Mitchell
22 March 2025
2 hours with interval