The Parmetto Piano Trio

LUNCHTIME RECITAL th Friday 9 July 2021 1.15pm The Parmetto Piano Trio Susan Meteyard violin Maja Todd ‘cello Gillian Parsons piano Admission free – retiring collection or via QR code (see back page) The Parmetto Trio - Gillian PARsons (piano), Sue METeyard (violin) and Maja TOdd (‘cello) - met while teaching in the Music Departments of the Warwick Independent Schools Foundation. They formed this trio in 2018 and since then have played regularly in chamber music series in Warwickshire and beyond, including a recital at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh during the Festival in 2019. They particularly enjoy exploring less well- known trio repertoire and are thrilled to be able to perform together again after the prolonged interruption. Sue Meteyard had a musical childhood in Bury St Edmunds and went on to study Violin and Viola at the Birmingham Conservatoire with Prof Dr Joseph Aronoff, Felix Kok and David Curtis, where she was a prize winner in her final year. After three years touring the UK with West End Musicals, Sue settled in Leamington Spa, where she has established a varied career of teaching and performing. She has played with many orchestras and chamber ensembles across the UK, including Corona String Orchestra, Mid Wales Opera, Bergonzi String Quartet, British Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, Armonico Consort, Heritage Opera, Opera Novella, Orchestra of the Swan and English Symphony Orchestra. She is also the leader of the Beauchamp Sinfonietta with whom she has performed the Bach Double Violin Concerto and Vivaldi Concerto for Four Violins. Sue has given recitals in Leamington, Warwick, Stratford and Coventry. Further afield, she has appeared as a soloist in Belgium and given chamber concerts in Musique Cordiale Festival, France. Maja Todd grew up near Basel in Switzerland and studied ‘cello at the Conservatoire in Basel and later at the Conservatoire in Lucerne where she graduated in Music Performance and Music Education. She also participated in a master class given by the renowned cellist, Paul Tortelier. She started her early musical career as a member of the Opera Orchestra Lucerne and the ‘Bach Kollegium Basel.’ Upon moving to Scotland, she played for Scottish Opera in Glasgow and worked for Lothian Council Music Service as well as building up a private teaching practice. Following a move to Sevenoaks, Kent, she arrived in Leamington Spa in 1986 and from 1990 taught ‘cello at King’s High School for Girls, and later at Warwick School. As well as enjoying her teaching, Maja has played in a number of chamber ensembles, including the Landor Piano Trio, Quattricelli, Red Barn Cellos and Chimera. Gillian Parsons was born in Swansea where she learnt piano, violin and organ. She studied with Dr Michael Smith, then organist of Llandaff Cathedral and was subsequently awarded an Organ Scholarship at Oxford University where she read Music. Her teachers there included Nicholas Kynaston, Geoffrey Webber and David Sanger and she was awarded the Associate of the Royal College of Organists diploma whilst an undergraduate. As a pianist, her work has been mainly as an accompanist for school choirs, local operatic and choral societies and for instrumental exams. She is a relative newcomer to the world of chamber music and is enjoying the challenge of learning new repertoire, but mainly the opportunity to play with friends. Piano Trio in G minor (Op. 17) Clara Schumann (1819-1896) i. Allegro moderato ii. Scherzo iii. Andante iv. Allegretto Quatre Pièces en Trio Charles-Marie Widor (1844-1937) i. Humoresque ii. Cantabile iii. Nocturne iv. Sérénade Clara Schumann began her career as a concert pianist, becoming known as Europe’s ‘Queen of the Piano’. Encouraged by her husband, the composer Robert Schumann, she also pursued her love of composition despite declaring: “A woman must not desire to compose — there has never yet been one able to do it. Should I expect to be the one?” Ultimately, she composed over thirty works including character pieces for piano, a Concerto, Lieder, and three Romances for violin and piano. Alongside her accomplished musical career, Clara had eight children, though many died in infancy. Her husband suffered from serious mental illness for many years, contributing to her somewhat troubled life. The Piano Trio in G minor is one of the few multi-movement works in Clara Schumann’s catalogue and was written during a particularly traumatic period. It was composed in 1846 when she was unable to tour due to her pregnancy with her fourth child. The substantial first movement, Allegro moderato, has a somewhat stern first subject and a lighter, more lyrical second. The development sees a confident, scholarly excursion into counterpoint, exploiting newly acquired skills developed from intense study of Bach’s contrapuntal writing. Breaking with convention, she inserts a playful Scherzo next, featuring a dotted rhythm or "Scotch snap." This is devolved into a more hesitant rhythm in the ensuing expressive trio section. The Andante features delightfully simple harmony combined with rich, romantic melodic ideas, reminiscent of Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words. This contrasts with a more agitated episode in the minor key. The finale, Allegretto, begins quietly with a meandering chromatic theme which is dark, despite its major tonality. There is a more optimistic second subject, alluding to the opening phrase of the slow movement. The short development breaks into another animated fugue and after a full recapitulation, there is a rather dramatic coda with most of its tension released just before the final chords. It may be surprising to some that Charles-Marie Widor did find time to write music besides the celebrated Toccata from his Fifth Organ Symphony! Although most notable for his ten organ symphonies, Widor composed throughout his life in virtually every genre, leaving a considerable output which has been almost totally ignored. Stylistically, his chamber works could hardly be further removed from the virtuosic organ repertoire and are altogether more lightweight. Widor first encountered the character piece genre through his association with Liszt. In 1890, he published four of these brief pieces for piano trio, which became known as Quatre Pièces en Trio pour violin, ‘cello et piano. Each reflects an individual emotional soundscape. None of them were actually composed at that time, making it unclear whether they were originally conceived to be performed as a single work or as individual miniatures and many structural conventions of the Romantic Trio are absent. The Quatre Pièces open with an impulsive Humoresque in G, comprising playful, staccato outer sections, with a contrasting Tranquillamente in between. The buoyant, light-hearted Cantabile in B minor/major is infectiously dance-like, with most of the melodic interest shared between the violin and ‘cello. Nocturne (in G) delivers a sense of warmth through its beautiful, lyrical melodies, reminiscent (as we heard in the Schumann Trio) of Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words. Finally, Sérénade is an engaging, carefree piece which, unsurprisingly, became the most popular of the four. Written in 1868 as a piano solo, its popularity led to several arrangements, with Widor himself arranging it for piano trio. It has a gloriously, joyful melodic line and a sense of elegance. Opening quietly in A major (before a brief, unconventional move to C major) there are two bold climatic moments before the piece fades to nothing, concluding the set. Critics have dismissed the Quatre Pièces as nothing more than “fluent and agreeable, lacking a clear personality… but worth hearing”… LUNCHTIME RECITALS Fridays, 1.15-2.00pm The series will resume on 10th September 2021. Please visit www.stmaryswarwick.org.uk or www.facebook.com/stmaryswarwick for full details If you would prefer to make a cashless donation, please scan the QR code For information about organ recitals throughout the UK, please visit www.organrecitals.com .

Load more