United Kingdom Verne-Bredt, Tate, Beethoven, C. Schumann: Mayflower Ensemble (Nicola Heinrich [cello], Alison Hughes [clarinet], Samantha Carrasco [piano]). Beaulieu Abbey Church, Brockenhurst, 16.3.2024. (CK)

Alice Verne-Bredt – Phantasie Trio
Phyllis Tate – Sonata for Cello and Clarinet
Beethoven – Piano Trio, Op.11
Clara Schumann – Piano Trio, Op.17

Only a month in the past I used to be in Hawksmoor’s spectacular Church of St. Alfege in Greenwich, the place the St. Paul’s Sinfonia give a season of concert events beneath their dynamic conductor Andrew Morley. The live performance was book-ended by successful performances of Haydn’s twenty fourth Symphony and Schumann’s First Symphony (‘Spring’), each given with infectious verve. Between them got here two absolute gems: Alice Mary Smith’s Andante for Clarinet and Orchestra and the primary efficiency of Ed Hughes’s Clarinet Concerto ‘Sky Blue’, impressed by Kandinsky’s portray of that identify. The music had all of the buoyancy, complexity and free-floating pleasure of Kandinsky’s photos, and it was given an impressively assured efficiency by Ed’s sister Alison, clarinettist of the Mayflower Ensemble (a household affair: the work is devoted to their mom on her eightieth birthday).

For those who haven’t come throughout Ed’s music (he’s Professor of Composition on the College of Sussex) I can do no higher than echo Richard Hanlon’s description: ‘enchanting…elaborate and unusual, however incontrovertibly English’. Ed wouldn’t thank me for this incongruous comparability, however the Clarinet Concerto conjures, by extra complicated means, the sort of exhilaration you discover in Michael Nyman’s The place the Bee Dances for soprano saxophone and small orchestra; and it made me need to hear these musicians play Finzi’s Clarinet Concerto (which, heretically, I might slightly hear than Mozart’s).

I hope no one minds my slipping within the above mini-review earlier than turning to this live performance given by the Mayflower Ensemble, who I’ve reviewed earlier than (right here). Right here Alison Hughes and her colleagues Nicola Heinrich and Samantha Carrasco have been taking part in within the great area (and wonderful acoustic) of Beaulieu Abbey Church, initially a part of a Cistercian basis. What I notably admire about their work is their dedication to researching and performing the music of ladies composers – typically valued by their contemporaries as performers however ignored as creators.

One such is Alice Verne-Bredt, whom Alison has been notably devoted to researching and bringing to efficiency. She was one among three sisters from Southampton, all well-known of their day as pianists and academics (Mathilde was a scholar of Clara Schumann; Adela gave the BBC Proms premieres of each Brahms piano concertos beneath Sir Henry Wooden). The Phantasie Trio is without doubt one of the few items by Verne-Bredt to be printed. Its subtitle ominously inverts a standard consolatory thought: ‘Beneath the sunshine there’s darkness’. Its ten minutes or so start with the darkish sonorities of cello and decrease piano in troubled minor mode; when the clarinet articulates the theme the impact is hanging, like anguished speech. The cello launches the upward-yearning second theme, romantic and slightly sultry; however the music by no means manages to shake off its unquiet character, in order that the moments of real magnificence sound wistful slightly than affirmative. Sooner, extra animated music has us questioning whether or not we’re striving in the direction of the sunshine, but it surely sinks down till all that’s left is 2 deep, tolling notes on the piano.

It’s a wonderful piece, deserving to be higher recognized. It was adopted by slightly gem: the second motion (Vivo) from Phyllis Tate’s Sonata for Cello and Clarinet, first carried out in 1947. In good distinction to the Verne-Bredt piece it’s quirky and playful, requiring agility from each performers: it put me in thoughts of music for an early cartoon movie. This isn’t to demean it – removed from it (it’s price remembering that John Adams cites Schoenberg’s Chamber Symphony No.1 and Bugs Bunny cartoons because the joint inspiration for his personal Chamber Symphony). I cherished the wheezy cello arguing with the snappy clarinet; and the cello trying a waltz earlier than the music ran down like a clock. Music of character and wit, and a tantalising trailer for the entire sonata.

Beethoven’s early Piano Trio is uncommon in that includes a clarinet (he printed another model by which a violin replaces it), and in addition in its three-movement type. It’s a pleasant piece, elegant and filled with freshness and appeal, with wonderful, flourishing work for all three gamers: I notably loved the clarinet’s creamy legato within the Adagio, and the sheer inventiveness of the variations within the finale. The gamers’ involvement in and pleasure of the music was palpable all through.

The identical was true of their efficiency of Clara Schumann’s Piano Trio in G minor (the violin half transcribed by Alison for clarinet). It opens enchantingly, as if we’re eavesdropping on a dialog between pals: and the sense of her husband Robert’s untrammelled Romantic Fantasie in C behind the music’s lyrical passion a number of occasions introduced the pricking of tears. Within the Scherzo the lilting theme with its light Scotch snaps sounded so pretty on the clarinet that I believe I’ll miss it after I hear it performed on the violin: and the identical is true of the melody of the Andante – appropriately dubbed a ‘Track with out Phrases’ within the programme word – when the clarinet takes it over from the piano. When the cello takes the melody, after a extra animated central part, the impact is like balm, as is the ending of the motion over gently rocking chords on the piano. The finale attracts us in with a magical once-upon-a-time melody and offers it thrilling fugal remedy on the way in which to a stirring major-key ending.

The efficiency had all the heat and dedication that the Mayflower Ensemble convey to the whole lot they play; and of their championing of ladies composers they’re doing one thing essential and revealing. They deserve a large following.

Chris Kettle