BIOGR A PH Y

Regularly invited to perform in prestigious venues such as London's

Wigmore Hall and Southbank Centre, Bonn’s Beethoven-Haus,
Verbier Festival, Philharmonie de Paris, Auditorium du Louvre,
Folle Journée de Nantes, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Trio Sora is
a charismatic ensemble recognised for its daring interpretations.
Winners of numerous awards — HSBC Laureate of the Académie
du Festival d’Aix-en-Provence (2017), Parkhouse Award
(2017), Special Prize of the Verbier Festival Academy (2018),
Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship (2020) —, the trio enjoy regular
collaborations with great masters such as Mathieu Herzog,
András Schiff, Menahem Pressler, Antonio Meneses, Andreas
Keller, Tabea Zimmermann, the Quatuor Ebène and Artemis Quartet.

In Autumn 2020, Trio Sora will release its first CD of the complete Beethoven Piano Trios with Naïve Records.
Their aim is to celebrate the composer’s humanity and tremendous modernity. The ensemble is also committed Sunday 31 May 2020 • 6.30pm
to promoting the work of female composers and contemporary figures such as Dieter Ammann, Kelly-Marie
Murphy, Camille Pépin, Wolfgang Rhim and Eric Tanguy.

TRIO SŌRA
Trio Sora is in residence at the Fondation Singer-Polignac, Le Dimore Del Quartetto, ProQuartet-CEMC, and is
supported by the Günther Caspar Stiftung, Spedidam, the Swiss Life Foundation and Adami.

Clémence de Forceville plays a Giovanni Battista Guadagnini violin (1777) and Angèle Legasa a Giulio
Cesare Gigli cello (1767), instruments generously loaned by the Fondation Boubo-Music.

DINE A F T E R T HE CONCE R T NE X T AT CON WAY H A L L

We are pleased to announce that the following SUNDAY 07 JUNE • 6.30pm
Violin • Clémence de Forceville
Oculi Ensemble
restaurants will offer an exclusive 20% discount on
food to Conway Hall concert-goers on the production A fundraising event to
Cello • Angèle Legasa
of tonight’s programme: support the Sunday Concerts
Mozart | String Quintet in G minor K516
Piano • Pauline Chenais
Café Rouge • 77 Kingsway
Pizza Express • 99 High Holborn Webern | Langsamer Satz
Brahms | String Quintet in F Op.88

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Concerts - Lectures - Masterclasses - New Works - Educational Events

We welcome everyone who values the piano trio medium and would like
to support its development. Our membership is international and includes
professional trios, composers, teachers, students and corporate members.

www.pianotriosociety.org.uk

Patrons: Stephen Hough • Prunella Scales CBE • Hiro Takenouchi • Petroc Trelawny • Timothy West CBE
Conway Hall Sunday Concerts are an integral part of the charitable activities of Conway Hall
Conway Hall is owned and operated by Conway Hall Ethical Society • registered charity no. 1156033)
We are hugely grateful to the CAVATINA Chamber Music Trust for subsidising free tickets for 8-25 year-olds

conwayhall.org.uk/sundayconcerts conwayhallsundayconcerts chsunconcerts Please turn off all mobile phones and electronic devices • No recording or photography allowed at any time
 PR OGR A MME
Franz Josef Haydn (1732-1809)
TRIO IN E MINOR HOB.XV:12 (1788) [19’]
I. Allegro moderato
II. Andante
III. Rondo. Presto
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937)
TRIO IN A MINOR (1914) [27’]
I. Modéré
II. Pantoum: Assez vif
III. Passacaille: Très large
IV. Final: Animé
INTERVAL
Refreshments will be available in The Hive
(Please do not bring glasses into the Main Hall)
Fanny Mendelssohn (1805-47)
TRIO IN D MINOR OP. 11 (1846/47) [25’]
I. Allegro molto vivace
II. Andante espressivo
III. Lied. Allegretto
IV. Allegro moderato
Tonight’s performance will finish at approximately 8:30pm.
PR OGR A MME NO T E S
Haydn’s Piano Trio in E minor comes from a set of three intended for the forte-piano, at a time when
Haydn was still writing works for the harpsichord. After 1794, all his piano trios were written for
forte-piano; the advantage being that it was a more flexible instrument with a greater dynamic range
and a better ability to play legato. Haydn often referred to his piano trios as sonatas for piano
with accompaniments for a violin and a cello, and even in the late works the keyboard is dominant,
though the violin is sometimes let off the leash, the cello’s role is to bring colour and warmth.
By 1788, Haydn had been working for the Princes Esterhazy for 27 years. The Princes were musical
connoisseurs who appreciated Haydn’s talents, and though he had a heavy workload, he also had
access to his own orchestra. After 1779, his contract was renegotiated, and he was permitted to
write for others and to sell his work to publishers. When the Trio in E minor was published in Vienna
it was a commercial venture, aimed at the popular amateur market. It was these publications which
made Haydn famous, rather than the music composed for the Princes in his lonely exile in Esterhaza
in Hungary.
Whilst Maurice Ravel only started writing his piano trio in March 1914, he had been planning it
for six years. He wrote it in the French Basque town of Saint-Jean-de-Luz; just across the bay was
Ciboure where Ravel had been born. His mother was Basque, and he was proud of this heritage.
Whilst he spent the Summer in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, Ravel wrote not only the trio but a subsequently
abandoned piano concerto based on Basque themes entitled Zazpiak Bat (Basque for "The Seven
are One"). There was some cross-fertilisation and Ravel said the first movement of the trio is Basque
in colour, but an early biographer said that whilst Ravel thought the tune, heard when watching men
dancing the fandango, was Basque, it wasn’t!
The first movement draws on the irregular rhythms of a Basque dance form, but Ravel still writes in
sonata form albeit with his own touches. The second movement is a scherzo, its name Pantoum refers
to a Malaysian verse form, in which the second and fourth lines of each four-line stanza become the
first and third lines of the next, perhaps a reference to the ways the themes are developed. The third
movement is a passacaglia with the main theme deriving from the previous movement. The finale is
again in irregular rhythms and challenges all three players with the violin having arpeggio harmonics
and the cello double-stopped trills! The result is the most orchestral of the four movements.
Fanny Mendelssohn received her initial piano instruction from her mother (who trained with a student
of JS Bach), and had as role-models her great-aunts, one a patroness of a salon and the other a
skilled keyboard player. Fanny’s talents were supported but not encouraged; it was clear that no
matter what her musical abilities, she was destined for marriage. Luckily, she would find a relatively
supportive husband.
Her Piano Trio was a birthday present for her sister, but it wasn’t published until 1850, three years
after Fanny’s death. The trio shows both the influence of Fanny’s brother Felix, but also that of
Schubert. The opening Allegro uses bold themes, yet Fanny’s writing for the piano blends the
instrument into the trio texture. The Andante begins calmly enough but develops into something more
dramatic. The third movement, Lied, is attractively song-like, whilst the Finale begins with a surprising
cadenza-like passage for the piano.
© Robert Hugill 2020