Tenby Arts Festival Committee are to be congratulated for bringing the Trio Melzi to Tenby. This trio, founded only two years ago, consisted of the pianist, Sarah Beth Briggs, who in 1984 was, at 11, the youngest ever finalist in the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition, the violinist Richard Howarth, leader of the Manchester Camerata, and Jonathan Price, principal cellist with Manchester Camerata.
Together on Sunday evening they produced a standard of musicianship rarely equalled in St. Mary's Church.
They started with a performance of Mozart's trio in E major K 542, one of the six sublime works that Mozart wrote for the piano trio in his tragically short life. With such an astonishing number of works in all musical genres written in such a limited time one can only wonder how any mere mortal could possibly produce such music. Did he write anything which was not a masterpiece from the age of eight until his early death at the age of 35?
The next work was introduced by the cellist, who jokingly said that having now discovered Tenby, the trio wondered if they should live here and work in Manchester. They played the Premier Trio, an early work by Debussy. This rarity was missing from the catalogue of complete Debussy works until 1986 when the original mutilated manuscript was discovered. Apparently, one page was missing and the final four bars from the finale had been cut out and given as a present by the owner of the manuscript. What a gift - but what sacrilege!
After the interval the pianist introduced the final work on the programme, Beethoven's Trio in B flat Opus 97. Named 'The Archduke' after its dedicatee and patron, the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, and like all Beethoven's named works this, No. 7, together with No. 5, 'The Ghost' trio, is the most familiar of the eight or so he wrote for these instruments. Its chief charm for Beethoven lay in the opportunity it gave for his own participation as a pianist. Written in 1811, the subsequent chamber music which included the piano, apart from the two Cello Sonatas Opus 102 (1815) and, of course, the solo Piano Sonatas, show that Beethoven's interest and genius was moving again towards the String Quartet, the medium in which he produced some of his greatest works.
The applause from the most appreciative audience brought back the performers for an encore. This was introduced by the violinist who recounted that Haydn was reputed to write the piano part in his trios for lady pianists so that they could invite gentleman string players to their homes!
So to round off this most enjoyable of evenings, the Trio Melzi played the finale from Haydn's Piano Trio No. 25 nicknamed 'The Gipsy' and probably the best known of Haydn's extraordinary output of some 45 or so piano trios. This was played with the virtuosity, panache and joie de vive which had permeated the whole performance.
A. R. M.