Piano Trio save the day
It was an unexpected pleasure to hear the D’Avanzo Piano Trio perform at Farnham United
Reformed Church on Tuesday 1st November as part of the regular Music at Lunchtime
series. The Duo Figaro had been booked to appear but less than a week before the concert
Peter Mallinson, the viola player, had sustained a fall, spraining his wrist and leaving him
temporarily incapable of playing. By good fortune, the violinist in the Duo, Lucia D’Avanzo,
was able to arrange for her friends in the D’Avanzo Piano Trio, Noelle Casella, cello, and
Sebastian Grand, piano, to join her in giving a concert in place of the Duo.
The first item in their programme consisted of the first three of the charming Miniatures for
Piano Trio written by Frank Bridge just over a century ago, in 1910. These pieces, written for
students to play or for amateurs at home, are nevertheless delightful to listen to.
More serious stuff was to follow: the Piano Trio No. 1 by the nineteenth century composer
Édouard Lalo, written in the tradition of the trios of Mendelssohn and Schumann. This is a
very fine work, and it is a pity that we do not hear it played more often. The playing of the
D’Avanzo Trio certainly made this listener want to hear it again. The first stormy movement
was followed by a peaceful and tuneful Romance and then a stormy scherzo before the
Finale.
Finally we were given Rikudim (four Israeli dances) by the Belgian composer Jan Van der
Roost, wonderful pieces with a definite Jewish feel to them. After the first dance, marked
Andante moderato, the second was alternately sad and fiery, the third dreamy and the
fourth, “con moto e follemento” (madly?) another fiery movement. I could have listened to
these all afternoon.
We send Peter best wishes for a good recovery and are very grateful to the D’Avanzo Piano
Trio for stepping at such short notice and playing with such distinction.
The next concert in the Music at Lunchtime series is to be given by the violinist Litsa Tunnah,
who made her concerto debut at the age of 12, playing Mendelssohn, and was a finalist in
the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition 2002.
John Mansfield