{"id":27379,"date":"2025-10-13T11:00:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T11:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ensemble.cymru\/?page_id=27379"},"modified":"2025-10-13T11:11:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T11:11:21","slug":"one-of-our-instruments-is-missing","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ensemble.cymru\/en\/discover-chamber-music\/one-of-our-instruments-is-missing\/","title":{"rendered":"One of our instruments is missing!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Jonathan Lyness
Programme Curator<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are three different types of string trio. You can have two violins and a viola, or two violins and a cello, or a violin, viola and cello. Now, a cynic might say that a string trio sounds like a string quartet with one of its players missing. And yes, that sometimes happens! I\u2019ve heard a story where a string quartet\u2019s cello got stuck at an airport, which left two violins and a viola having to give a concert. And there are two key works for this particular combo, both from Eastern Europe: Dvorak\u2019s Terzetto<\/em> and Kodaly\u2019s Serenade<\/em>. If the viola player is missing, then that generally restricts one to the c18th. But if a violin is missing, then the world is one\u2019s oyster, because the standard string trio \u2013 violin, viola and cello \u2013 far from being a quartet with a missing violin, is in fact an established ensemble with a rich history and a myriad of available repertoire from the c18th to the present day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mervin Jules (1912-1994) Lithograph Trio<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

However, there is one country whose contribution to the trio repertoire is somewhat scarce. And that country is Britain! Historically, British composers just didn\u2019t seem to like string trios! There are a few scattered c20th examples, from Ernest Moeran to Lennox Berkeley, but, for this concert, Ensemble Cymru have departed from British repertoire, such as it is, and looked elsewhere, beginning with the great classical composers \u2013 Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven (who all wrote terrific trios) \u2013 before finally settling on Franz Schubert. Schubert\u2019s B-flat trio of 1816 is actually unfinished \u2013 there is just a first movement, but it\u2019s of sufficient scale to enable it to stand alone. That, and the fact that it\u2019s a work of utter genius \u2013 as delightful and engaging as anything Schubert wrote. If Schubert\u2019s B-flat trio D471 doesn\u2019t put a smile on your face, nothing will!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jean Francaix<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And so, where to next? Earlier this year, I explained in a blog how, during the late 1920s and 1930s, the French had invented the reed trio! Well, it seems the French had a fetish for trios, because during this time they were also busy writing string trios \u2013 for violin, viola and cello. There are masses of them, and we\u2019ve chosen one by Jean Francaix. Francaix was a committed neo-classicist. Not for him the atonality and \u2018waywardness\u2019 of some of his compatriots. His music is distinctively tuneful, tonal, witty, light and, with its airs, graces and dance-like forms, makes him a natural twentieth century successor to the likes of Schubert. His style is exemplified in his \u2018Trio \u00e0 cordes\u2019<\/em> of 1933, which has four short movements: Allegretto, Scherzo, Andante and Rondo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Georges Enescu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Zoltan Kodaly<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Finally, Ensemble Cymru turn to Eastern Europe. After all, if Eastern Europe provide the two key works for that \u2018quartet with its missing cello\u2019, then surely this must be a good source for the standard string trio? Well, it is, including several from the first decade of the twentieth century. We\u2019ve chosen two short and tuneful little gems \u2013 the Aubade<\/em> by the Romanian composer Georges Enescu, and the Intermezzo<\/em> by the Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodaly. Kodaly\u2019s work, coming just two years after Enescu\u2019s, could easily have been written as a companion piece. Perhaps it was.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Musicians<\/h2>\n\n\n\n