{TABLE} Trio in E flat, Hob xv 29...............Haydn Trio....................................Peter Michael Hamel Trio No, 1 in D minor, op 49............Mendelssohn {/TABLE} THE Trio Opus 8, who have been playing together since 1986, gave last Sunday's midday recital in the Lane Gallery, opening with a delightfully unlaboured performance of Haydn's Trio in E Flat.
The Trio by Peter Michael Hamel (born 1947) was a sophisticated mixture of the jarringly modern and the accustomed traditional modes. Much use was made of string glissandos, not as a decorative device but as an integral part of the melodic language.
It is perhaps relevant that Hamel was Composer in Residence for the West of Ireland in 1986. He seeks to restore a "sense of humanism" to music after what some might consider the intellectual excesses of some 20th-century composers. Certainly once one had adjusted to his style his trio was as pleasing to listen to as the Haydn.
Mendelssohn's Trio No 1 was easily the most intellectual work in the programme. Opus 8 had no difficulty in adapting to its stately melodies and high seriousness, momentarily lightened by the attractive Scherzo and gave full value to the pomp and ceremony of the ending.
