Trio on Irish Folk Tunes

Gabriel Fauré Piano Trio in d opus 120
Frank Martin Trio sur des mélodies populaires irlandaises
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Franz Schubert Piano Trio in Bes D898 opus 99

The Van Baerle Trio (pianist Hannes Minnaar, violinist Maria Milstein and cellist Gideon den Herder) took the name from the Van Baerlestraat, on which the Amsterdam Conservatory (their place of study) was and the Concertgebouw is located. This fantastic ensemble will play piano trios by Fauré and Schubert and Martin’s trio inspired by Irish folk music.

It is the summer of 1925. Frank Martin is in Capbreton on the French west coast, not far above the Spanish border. (From there, in the Bay of Biscay, you would be able to see Ireland if you could look a thousand kilometres north-northwest along Bretagne!) Martin’s notebook contains rhythms and tunes that he wrote down from collections of folk songs in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. They inspired him to compose a piano trio in which this material is freely and imaginatively employed, reminiscent of Bartók’s folk song arrangements, plus a sprinkling of jazzy blues sounds. In the words of the composer: ‘this Trio hardly draws on harmony and the polyphonic principle of imitation, all relies on the rhythm and melody that forms the basis of Irish song and dance’.

photo © Kaupo Kikkas