CONCERTS IN THE WEST 2015
The Skazki Trio
Kamila Bydlowska violin Alisa Liubarskaya cello Maria Razumovskaya piano
Originally from Eastern Europe - Poland, Belarus and Russia respectively - and more recently working
together at the Royal College of Music, London, it was more than appropriate that Shostakovich’s
Second Piano Trio was the main focus of the Skazki Trio’s programme. It is a work born from the
900-day siege of Lenningrad by Germans from September 1941 to January 1944; for some of its
duration the hardship was experienced at first hand. But the question remains: how far do musicians
extend the brutality of such a score to their performance? From Kamila and Maria we were not
spared!
In Dvořák’s Second Piano Trio, a late work of contrasting moods from the 1890s, the Skazkis were
deeply passionate and cheerfully dance-like in turn. Alisa’s laments were particularly impressive in
binding this otherwise unwieldy work together.
We can even follow the Eastern Europe link through to Haydn – in the eighteenth century Esterhazá,
where the composer was in service for thirty years, was on the borders of Hungary. Each of the
Skazi’s four concerts began with Haydn’s most famous trio, the ‘Gypsy Rondo’. While they played
with style through the melting harmonies of its slow movement and the long lines of the opening
Andante, in the Rondo itself, the ensemble was not quite consistent, and the accented notes were
exaggerated. Nevertheless, for some of the audience, this popular movement brought the most
enthusiastic response.
You will now have to wait until the first week in May for the next group of recitals – a very wideranging programme from multi-prizewinner, tenor Rupert Charlesworth.