Leonore Piano Trio at The Royal Concert Hall

About

Royal Concert Hall
Thursday 24 June 2021 | 7pm
£20 full price | £16 concessions | £5 students
1 hour 25 minutes (no interval)

Formed in 2012, the Leonore Piano Trio has built a reputation at home and across the world for exploring celebrated and lesser known pieces by classical and romantic composers. Comprising internationally acclaimed artists - Benjamin Nabarro, violin, Gemma Rosefield, cello and Tim Horton, piano - the Trio records for Hyperion, releasing seven critically-acclaimed recordings for the label in as many years.

The programme begins with one of the three trios Beethoven published as his Opus 1 in 1795. The Piano Trio was a popular combination for performances by amateurs in domestic environments thus, publishing a set as his Op.1 was important for business as well as establishing himself as a mature composer. The spirited finale is a joyful galop with Haydn-esque humour.

Josef Suk wrote his Elegie as a memorial to his friend and artistic collaborator, the Czech writer Julius Zeyer whose epic poems drew on the Bohemian legends of their homeland. The graceful, poignant short work is imbued with the sadness of loss but also ultimately acceptance; truly music that is heartfelt and particularly resonant in these times.

The final piece on the programme, Dvořák's Piano Trio in F minor, is also infused with a sense of unrest and tragic lyricism. Dvořák began work on the piece when he was deeply depressed only two months after the death of his mother. The Trio is more dramatic and darker than earlier works and, with the exception of the second-movement polka, Slavic folk idioms are less prominent. Instead, this powerful, noble work is Brahmsian in stature, reflecting the esteem in which Dvořák held the older composer.