News – September 2024

The beginning of another season! The highlight for me last season was the performance at GLive, Guildford, of our Words and Music programme ‘Beethoven: Man and Music’. For those of you who do not this hall, it is rather large for chamber music, but the audience was so warm that it felt a friendly venue. The combination of spoken word delivered by fine actors, and piano trios is always inspiring.

This season in our repertoire we are including the lovely piano trio by Francis Edward Bache (1833-1858).  This trio is reminiscent of Mendelssohn’s D minor trio. It is beautiful to listen to, well written and a joy to play. Who knows what to what heights Bache would have risen if he had not succumbed to TB at a tragically early age. The English Piano Trio researched and recorded the work a few years ago on the Dutton Epoch label. The score and parts are readily available from Edition Silvertrust:  www.editionsilvertrust.com

We look forward to playing in new venues this season, and another year of making music wherever it takes us!

News – October 2023

We started our season last month with two lovely concerts for Folkestone Concert Club and in Bury St Edmunds Cathedral. Both of these were in wonderful buildings, which always adds atmosphere to the performance. It would be interesting to be able to gauge how a beautiful venue adds to the enjoyment for both performer and listener. Of course there is always the question of acoustic as well. They both have a crucial part to play!

The Trio looks forward to more playing this autumn and winter. A new programme for us will be the Words and Music performance ‘Beethoven – the Man and his Music’. This will be presented at Guildford GLive, and will consist of some of Beethoven’s greatest piano trios, with words woven around the music, narrated by actors Christopher Ravenscroft and Ann Penfold.

Our CD of works by the English composer Rutland Boughton ( 1878-1960) was released in May and has been very favourably reviewed. It was such a pleasure to work at his compositions. The photo below is of us with our recording engineer, Oscar Torres. I thoroughly recommend Rutland Boughton’s piano trio and his violin and piano sonata to any group or player wishing to expand their repertoire, particularly of English music.

English Piano Trio and recording engineer Oscar Torres take a break during the Rutland Boughton recording in Oxford.

We hope you all continue to relish chamber music this autumn, whether as a performer, listener or promoter.

News – November 2022

It has been good to start the new season without the severe worries of Covid restrictions. We have enjoyed returning to performing the great Schubert B flat trio.  After so many years of piano trio playing we feel that this is one of the great masterpieces of this genre. Revisiting it after a few seasons it is a joy to play.  For our lunchtime recitals we have found a new work to couple with the Schubert. We have always felt a particular connection with the piano trios of Haydn and to perform his G minor trio Hob.XV:1 for the first time will be exciting.  The two works complement each other really well.

We expect our new CD for the English Music Label to be released in the next few weeks and we will have all the details on this website as soon as possible. 
Whether you are performers, promoters or listeners, we hope you really enjoy all concerts this autumn season.

News – April 2022

It is interesting to see how normal it feels again to be performing, and it is heartening to have good audiences, even if we see rows of masks! A recent highlight for us is a recording of English music for the English Music label.  We spent three days in Oxford working with the wonderful recording engineer, Oscar Torres.   Being the English Piano Trio it seems natural to be playing English music! There is just so much lovely English music written, particularly in the last century.  Of course it is increasingly being rediscovered.  There is a certain unique quality about it. We are hoping now to include more of this in our concert programmes. We will give more details of this particular recording in due course.

English Piano Trio and Oscar Torres

News – November 2021

Like all ensembles we are now very happy to begin resuming live performances. It will take time to see a normal pattern of concerts, but with new repertoire to perform and record, we look forward to the challenges ahead! We are grateful to the promoters who are rebooking us for the next season. We hope everyone is enjoying playing and listening to live music once more!

News – November 2019

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!

News – March 2019

We are well into the season now. The music societies have made us very welcome and it is lovely to see such loyal listeners. We have great fun after performances chatting to some incredibly knowledgeable audience members. It was good to visit Wales again and enjoy their particularly warm hospitality with an abundance of local food and particularly the welsh cakes! We have been so impressed by the enthusiasm and determination of organisers. I would like to particularly mention the lunchtime concert series that are proving to be so popular. Maybe this is a way forward to cope with dwindling numbers of music societies. Many centre it around a simple lunch followed by the performance. It seems to work, with some capacity audiences. Not everyone can take a lunchbreak these days of course, but it certainly ticks the box for older listeners.

This March we were very privileged to give the premiere performance of a piano trio by the English composer Rutland Boughton (1878-1960). If you do not know of him, he is well worth a google search. He is best known for his opera ‘The Immortal Hour’ which had record breaking performances in London. This trio (1948) is 13 minutes long and in 2 sections. It is very English in character and is well written for all the instruments. It is always stimulating to perform a new work and this did not disappoint. A work like this in between two more standard repertoire pieces makes a satisfying experience for performers and audience.

We are celebrating the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth this coming season and we are planning performances of all his wonderful piano trios. We also have a Words and Music programme in which Beethoven’s letters and contemporary accounts are woven around the music.

News – Autumn 2018

We are looking forward to a new season. The first two recitals in October are part of the ‘Words and Music’ programmes. At the beginning of the month the historic church of St Alfege in Greenwich hosts a programme of music letters of Mozart. For this the Trio is joined by Rachel Bolt (viola) for the piano quartets, and actor Christopher Ravenscroft narrates from Mozart’s letters to family, friends and colleagues.

Later in the month the Trio’s programme about the Schumanns is performed, with music by both Robert and his wife Clara, Brahms and Mendelssohn. Actors Christopher Ravenscroft and Ann Penfold narrate.

Many performers and audience in the West Country will be aware of the closure in Bristol of the Colston Hall for refurbishment. The English Piano Trio has had a series there for a few years and we have thoroughly enjoyed this experience. There has been a loyal and appreciative audience listening to trios, with a talk beforehand by the music lecturer and BBC Radio3 host Stephen Johnson. We have been asked to cover some fairly unusual repertoire in this series. This has been very welcome as so often it is difficult to programme something less familiar. I am sure the newly refurbished Hall will be a great success and a really vibrant ‘hub’ for music in the area.

Another series that has ended is the full Beethoven piano sonata cycle given by the Trio’s pianist, Timothy Ravenscroft. The series was presented over two years at the amazing ‘GLive’ centre in Guildford. This is a marathon for any pianist and a wonderful experience into the bargain. Timothy introduced and performed these works to an ever increasing and extremely appreciative audience.

We hope you will enjoy the next season of music whether as a performer, promoter or audience member.

Autumn 2018

News – January 2018

Our recent winter recitals have taken us to a variety of venues. Two were in delightful chapel settings, in Norwich and Brighton. So often there is a wonderfully intimate ambience in chapels, and this encourages a definite feeling of audience involvement with the performance.

Early in this month of January we performed in a completely different setting in Southend. An old cinema, now with a different usage, hosts a highly successful concert series. Playing in a large venue requires a different performance technique – it is easy to feel a little lost on a large platform! There is no doubt in my mind that chamber music works better in a smaller hall, but there is a certain thrill in filling a large space with just three instruments.

Particular concerts to look forward to for the trio are a return visit to the wonderful city of Lincoln in February, and also preparing the piano quintet of Shostakovich for performance in Bristol. It is not often that a piano trio augments to a piano quintet – it is usually the domain of a string quartet, so it is a welcome experience.

The Piano Trio Society is presenting the first ever intercollegiate competition this spring for piano trios at both junior and senior levels. The Junior competition is on Sunday February 4th and the Senior competition is on Sunday April 29th. Both are held at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. This is a very exciting time for the Piano Trio Society, and more details can be found on their website:
www.pianotriosociety.org.uk

Happy chamber music this spring!

24th January 2018

Autumn 2017

I like to look back at the end of a season and think about the most memorable concert. As usual there are the odd incidents one remembers – unusual page turners, particularly responsive audiences, travel disruptions… the list could go on. What stands in my mind though are the recitals given in churches, particularly those on a grand scale, with awe inspiring architecture and a beautiful atmosphere. Chichester Cathedral is a stunning building and our return visit there was definitely a highlight. To perform great music in this venue is certainly a privilege and, considering its centuries old traditions, rather humbling.

It is the time of year when rehearsing for the new season begins, and often new repertoire is to be learned, or old repertoire revisited. It is also time for a mailshot. Maybe most groups do not bother with this antiquated method of publicity, but personally I like to feel a brochure in my hand. What is disturbing is the number of music societies which have folded. If only we could encourage more people to experience live music. When they do they are blown away by it, as we all are. Any blemishes are made up for by the excitement of the concert platform and the communication that is possible between performers and audience. I also run a festival so I know the challenges of producing an audience to make a full house. Pessimism does not help though, and it may be that chamber concerts will evolve into a different setting. Informality is good and accepted everywhere now, and it really can be an all inclusive art form.

There is exciting news from the Piano Trio Society of an intercollegiate piano trio completion is 2018, for both juniors and seniors. More details to follow.

In the meantime, happy music making and listening. We are certainly looking forward to a busy season.