Trio Bohémo, Britten Pears Young Artist Programme alumni praised for “precision, dedication and a spark of magic”, makes its Festival debut with four attractive and contrasting works.

Judith Weir:
O Viridissima (4’)
Novák:
Piano Trio No.2 in D minor, Op.27, “Quasi una ballata” (16’)
Judith Weir:
Piano Trio (15’)
Brahms:
Piano Trio No.1 in B, Op.8 (31’)

Trio Bohémo

Matouš Pěruška violin
Kristina Vocetková cello
Jan Vojtek piano

Main image: Trio Bohémo


Judith Weir’s O Viridissima guides us back to the 12th century through reimagined workings of Hildegard of Bingen, a beautiful contrast with the youthful and brilliant first piano trio of Brahms, written at the age of 20.

Vítězslav Novák wrote his captivating Second Piano Trio in 1902 – a time when the composer felt torn between the influences of traditional folk and modernism; the resulting work is appealingly varied. Of the unusually prosaic title of her Piano Trio, Judith Weir writes: “the many external impressions which habitually make up my musical world have become too numerous and too personal to be pinned down in the space of few words that a composition title allows”. Her website does, though, list some of those influences: a phone call from Africa, a Schubert song about Venice, Gaelic poetry from the Outer Hebrides…