Friday lunchtime concert: Trio Brontë I

Much-loved works by Schubert and Mendelssohn alongside beautiful Lili Boulanger and a ‘new classic of chamber music’ by Wolfgang Rihm.

The Berlin-based Trio Brontë begins the series of Friday Lunchtime Concerts from Britten Pears Arts, showcasing young ensembles on the Britten Pears Young Artists Programme, chamber-music courses.

Over the last 40 years, Rihm’s ‘essays’ for piano trio have become modern classics, with their impulsive, obsessive character. This third trio begins in fragments, seemingly out of time, but later evokes Beethoven and Brahms – a surprising and fascinating listen.

Mendelssohn’s wonderfully romantic second trio evokes the sacred as an impassioned personal experience – a rhapsodic and impressive piece. Written in his extraordinary ‘final year’, Schubert’s Nocturne is a sublime treasure of chamber music – lyrical, colourful, and serene. It combines beautifully with Lili Boulanger’s wonderfully evocative ‘On a spring morning’.