The final event of my weekend in London was an unexpected delight. The Aquinas Piano Trio were performing Haydn’s Piano Trio Op. 40, completed during the final few weeks of Haydn’s second and last trip to London in 1795. The other work was Smetana’s only Piano Trio.
It is always exciting to hear a work for the first time which makes an immediate impact. In 1854 – 55, the Smetanas lost two daughters in quick succession to tuberculosis and scarlet fever. The Trio was one product of Smetana’s reaction to the losses – he wrote “The loss of my eldest daughter, that extraordinarily gifted child, inspired me to write the Trio in G minor in 1855.” I thought this was a wonderful work – sweepingly emotional, a haunting melody – and the Aquinas Piano Trio really dug into the work, particularly in the last movement. I’ve made an immediate note to myself to buy an MP3 recording of it.
There’s so much chamber music I have yet to discover. When I think that I could be dead in 5 years quite easily, and that some of the works I am hearing now I may never hear again in live performance before I die, it does provoke me to hear more and more!
The other work, the Haydn, was, as usual, engaging and fun, but the Smetana was a real knock-out. They offered a small encore, a melancholy tango-ish piece by the Argentinian composer Piazzola.
John's musical journey 