Linos Piano Trio

Britain, as an island nation, has always had a complicated relationship with cultural internationalism. At times it flourished as a European cultural centre, at others, it’s more insular. Joseph Haydn was celebrated and welcomed in London in the 1790s, his encounter with the English pianos inspired the late style of “grand” keyboard writing, as exemplified in the Piano Trio XV:27. Elgar’s popular Serenade for Strings was originally rejected by British publishers for being “unsaleable” and received its premiere in Antwerp. Byrd and Purcell’s songs are from periods of British prosperity on either side of the English Civil War. And Bridge’s masterpiece, commissioned by American philanthropist Elizabeth Coolidge, was deemed too modernist for the British public.