Amabile Trio

Performers

Notes on the performers

Lesley Schatzberger

Lesley Schatzberger has spent much of her career as principal clarinet with the English Baroque Soloists and Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. She was also a member of Stockhausen’s chamber group, taking part in many performances and recordings with him. Chamber music recordings include the clarinet quintets by Mozart and Brahms, Mozart’s quintet for clarinet, basset horn and strings, the two Konzertstücke for clarinet, basset horn and piano by Mendelssohn, Schubert’s Shepherd on the Rock, and Spohr’s Six German Songs. Lesley teaches at the University of York, by which she was awarded an honorary doctorate. She has also been awarded Honorary Membership of the Royal Northern College of Music.

Nicola Tait Baxter

Nicola Tait Baxter studied at the RAM, winning prizes for solo and chamber music, and graduating with first-class honours. At 24 she gave her first solo broadcast for Radio 3 and joined the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields chamber orchestra. For 5 years she was cellist in the renowned Fitzwilliam String Quartet, performing and giving masterclasses throughout Europe, Russia, North America and South Africa. As soloist, she performs most of the major ‘cello concertos and has given concerts of the complete solo suites by Bach in festivals in Europe and the USA. Nicola is also a rather active chamber music player, regularly performing with her pianist Mina Miletic, Amabile Clarinet Trio, Kucharsky Quartet and the Bochmann Trio.

Paul Nicholson

Paul Nicholson’s musical career has ranged from employment at the Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies – where he coached and accompanied alongside its co-founder, Peter Pears – to solo performance, and recording and directing with groups such as the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. His recordings for Hyperion have included Handel’s Organ Concertos (directed by Roy Goodman), and his Eight Harpsichord Suites of 1720 – this has been the reviewer’s choice in BBC Radio 3’s ‘Building a Library’. He is also an Anglican Priest – now retired from parish ministry – and is increasingly returning to chamber music with piano.

Programme

Programme notes

Louise Farrenc (1804 – 1875)

Trio for Clarinet, Cello & Piano in E flat op 44

1. Andante – Allegro moderator
2. Adagio
3. Minuetto
4. Allegro

Louise Farrenc was a French composer, virtuoso pianist and teacher of the Romantic period. Her compositions include three symphonies, a few choral works, numerous chamber pieces and a wide variety of piano music.

Source: Wikipedia

Johannes Brahms

Trio for Clarinet, Cello & Piano in A minor op 114

1. Allegro
2. Adagio
3. Andantino gracioso
4. Allegro

The Clarinet Trio in A minor, Op. 114, is one of four chamber works composed by Johannes Brahms featuring the clarinet as a primary instrument. It was written in the summer of 1891 for the clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld. It is considered by scholars as part of a rebirth for the composer who in 1890 declared his String Quintet in G major to be his final work.

The overall mood of the piece is sombre but includes both romantic and introspective qualities. The work incorporates a considerable amount of arpeggio patterns in its theme, complemented by conversation-like passages in the upper register of the cello.

It is very clear in the music that Brahms absolutely adored the playing of Richard Mühlfeld, and that this adoration made its way into the trio. Eusebius Mandyczewski, a scholar and friend of Brahms, wrote of the trio that “It is as though the instruments were in love with each other.”

Source: Wikipedia