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Beethoven, Cirri, Haydn Haydn Piano Trio in A flat, Hob. XV:14
Kings Place, 29 January 2012 It was good to hear live this excellent trio play two of the Haydn trios featured in their highly successful CD The heart of invention (reviewed in 2010*) plus, as encore, one of Haydn's most remarkable slow movements to be found in a rewarding oeuvre which is usually relegated to the first piece in mixed concerts with maybe the Gipsy rondo as encore. Maggie Cole had a word of appreciation for Kings Place - it was Trio Goya's first concert there - as ideal for their intimate music making. And another for her Paul McNulty fortepiano; his are becoming ubiquitous internationally (q.v. five of them at Wigmore Hall in July!) though only slowly have they started to become familiar at Kings Place. We have got used to the relative quietness of the fortepiano in chamber music, which makes you focus your attention on the keyboard during concerted passages. Slow movements in Haydn and Beethoven gave wonderful opportunites for Maggie Cole to shine in florid passages of poetic elaboration of her line (one of the best when the accompaniment was pizzicato). The Beethoven trio, sometimes the unfavourite of his Opus 1, came out particularly well and allowed the cellist to come out more strongly than did Haydn (who has him mostly doubling the pianist's left hand). But it was perhaps the programme's novelty, a duo by Giovanni Battista Cirri which stood out and whetted the appetite for more. He settled in London where he was employed as chamber musician to the Dukes of York and Gloucester, and was admired by the 8 year old Mozart with whom he shared a concert. More Trio Goya CDs and more London appearances wanted ! Peter Grahame Woolf *possibly the best Haydn piano trio performances on record |
