The season has seen some varied concerts for the English Piano Trio. We enjoyed travelling to Boston to play for their excellent Concert Club. It was interesting to note that the local music services aim to tie in with visiting performers and arrange concerts for children in some of the local schools before and the day after the main recital. We played for two primary schools and had very enthusiastic responses. The questions asked by children were sometimes entertaining and often enlightening. My favourite was ‘Who is the boss in your group?’ This led to a discussion about how rehearsals work and how an agreement is made if it is necessary to take a decision on tempo etc. Another was ‘Why do you perform?’ That of course was quite a deep question and gave food for thought! It would be so good if more music services became involved with their local music societies. You never know how hearing music live could give a child a nudge to ask for instrumental lessons.
Our Words and Music theme continued recently at Amersham Concert Club with Mozart as our focus. We combined his piano trios and piano quartets with contemporary accounts of the time. It was lovely to be joined by two excellent friends – violist Susie Meszaros and actor Roger Ringrose for the narration. These programmes are popular and we had a really large audience – always important for promoters!
I know we are far from being alone in performing Beethoven this season. His piano trios are such wonderful works that it is always a joy to include one in a concert programme. We look forward to the ‘Archduke’ in a couple of weeks in Norwich!