Telepathic connection

13 Aug 12

Now in its 13th year, the annual Corbridge Chamber Music Festival fills St Andrew’s Church, Corbridge to its high-vaulted ceiling, with glorious music from the Gould Piano Trio (who are celebrating their 20th anniversary this year) and their varied guests. This year’s line-up included musicians from Norway and New Zealand, and the familiar faces of regulars such as Robert Plane, principal clarinet of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and joint founder of the festival, performing a wide range of traditional trio repertoire and some more adventurous modern works in a classical music festival which has a real family feeling.

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This [Piano Trio no. 2 in E minor, op. 92] is an elusive one; no sooner does Saint-Saëns get his teeth into some passionately virtuosic material than he whisks us away with a playful countersubject, diffusing the emotional tension with an unexpected key change or new light-hearted melodic motif.

“When the music does release the full force of its romantic spirit, the experience of the Gould Trio really came to the fore as, moving as one entity with an almost telepathic connection, long flowing lines of melodic material were passed seamlessly from player to player.”

The virtuosic piano part was particularly impressive from pianist Benjamin Frith – Saint-Saëns takes no prisoners as the relentless accompanimental passages are juxtaposed with shimmering semiquavers in the upper octaves and dramatic melodic material. The grace and dexterity with which the Gould Trio played the lilting second movement and the almost childlike simplicity displayed in the fourth were beautiful moments in a first half which showed the eclecticism of Saint-Saëns’ compositional style as well as the profound emotional power of his music.

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“The stirring opening of the first movement [of Fauré’s Piano Quartet no. 1 in C minor, op. 15] was a striking start to the half and I felt that the emotional journey was expressed beautifully throughout…”

The whole evening… was a complete indulgence and the large and dedicated following that the Corbridge Chamber Music Festival attracts is truly well deserved, if the standard of playing seen here tonight was anything to go by.