SOMM Recordings is pleased to announce the second volume in the London Bridge Trio’s revealing exploration, recorded live, of the influential musical fraternity known as The Leipzig Circle.
Delving deeper into the coterie that coalesced around the husband-and-wife composers Robert and Clara Schumann as Leipzig flourished into becoming the centre of European music-making in the 1840s.
Composed soon after his 30th birthday, Felix Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No.1 in D minor (Op.49) is, says Robert Matthew-Walker in his informative booklet notes, one of the composer’s “greatest chamber music compositions… a fine and trenchant work, revealing his genius at getting the utmost definition and detail from a small group of instruments”.
Clara Schumann’s Op.17 Piano Trio in G minor elegantly shows off her own admired facility at the keyboard as well as her gift for composing music that “shows no little originality and a charm of melody which is all her own”.
From the beginning of what was to prove to be his late period, Robert Schumann’s F major Second Piano Trio (Op.80) moves from episodes of intense melancholy to Spring-fresh lightness to conclude with an engrossing discussion between all three instruments. Here, says Matthew- Walker, “is Schumann at his most endearingly human, the quintessence of Romanticism from a demonstrably original great composer”.
The Leipzig Circle, Volume I (SOMMCD 0199) was hailed by The Telegraph as “a total delight” while Gramophone admired the London Bridge Trio’s “playing of sensitivity and conviction” and concluded “there’s a lot here to enjoy”.
On This Recording
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Felix Mendelssohn: Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49
- I Molto allegro ed agitato
- II Andante con moto tranquillo
- III Scherzo. Leggiero e vivace
- IV Finale: Allegro assai appassionato Clara Schumann: Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 17
- I Allegro moderato
- II Scherzo and Trio
- III Andante
- IV Allegretto Robert Schumann: Piano Trio No. 2 in F major, Op. 80
- I Sehr lebhaft
- II Mit innigen ausdruck - Lebhaft
- III Andante
- IV Nicht zu rasch
Reviews:
“The London Bridge Trio bring this programme a vivid immediacy and an effortless sense of ensemble. Daniel Tong is if anything a slightly self-effacing pianist in the Mendelssohn’s whirlwinds; both string players are eloquent and freely lyrical… The Robert Schumann F major Trio takes the palm for the warmth and affection of this joyous rendition. The recorded sound is suitably intimate and pleasing.” —Jessica Duchen, BBC Music Magazine “With classical concerts currently as scarce as good news this Somm live recording – a generous 83+ minutes – is an enjoyable substitute. Finely played and imaginatively programmed. … The players – David Adams (violin), Daniel Tong (piano) and Kate Gould (cello) – excel…” —Norman Stinchcombe, Midlands Music Reviews
