{TABLE} String Trio Op 53 No 1 ......... Haydn String Trio .................... Berkeley String Trio Op 9 No 1 .......... Beethoven Siring Trio 1985-86 ............ Kevin O'Connell Piano Quarter in C min Op 60 ... Brahms {/TABLE} MUCH enjoyment was to be had from the Hibernia String Trio's recital at the RDS last night. The programme offered a fascinating conspectus of differing ways to write for string trio. The combination of violin, viola and cello does not have a large repertoire. It is compositionally demanding, for it can easily sound like a string quartet with something missing.
Haydn was perhaps the earliest master of this combination. His Trio Op. 53 No. 1 pairs two instruments against the melody in the third; or it fills out the texture with florid passage work. The robust style of the Hibernia String Trio - Brona Cahill (violin), Joachim Roewer (viola) and Richard Jenkinson (cello) - was a bit too rough and ready for this subtle music.
Lennox Berkeley's String Trio (1943) concentrates on a lean, contrapuntal version of the melody and accompaniment technique. Beethoven took a characteristically forceful approach in his Trio Op. 9 No. 1, which seems to bursts the genre's limitations with elaborate and often dense textures. Both these pieces came off handsomely, especially a heroic performance of the Beethoven.
Kevin O'Connell's String Trio 1985-86 goes to the opposite extreme, treating the three instruments "as an acoustic unit" (the composer's words). Each of its seven short movements eschews contrasts over time in favour of a single concentrated rhythmic and contrapuntal idea. The performance captured very well the character of each movement.
The British pianist Benjamin Frith joined the trio for Brahms's Piano Quartet in C minor Op. 60. His grip on the concerto like piano part was commanding. The performance was not always a carefully considered one; but it was exhilarating, and had that sense of shared intensity which is one of music making's highest rewards.
