Van Baerle Trio Play Ravel
Dunbar Parish Church 7/9/25
Hannes Minaar (piano), Maria Milstein (violin), Gideon den Herder (cello)
What Mahler would have called a “schlep” carried this reviewer from remote Crichton to Dunbar Parish Church for the third instalment of goodies from the Van Baerle Trio, the happy coincidence being a welcome change of ambient fragrance from agricultural ordure to maritime ozone. The venue also boasts a particularly beautiful interior, though the salient reason for its use on this occasion was its being available on a Sunday night whilst also being able to accommodate a grand piano. Completing the Brahms cycle, the Piano Trio No 3 in C minor Op 101 was the principal work in the first half, whilst Ravel’s Piano Trio in A minor was that of the second. Both are huge favourites of mine. They were preceded respectively by Haydn’s Piano Trio No.30 in E flat major and Lili Boulanger’s 1917 pair of pieces ‘D’un soir triste’ and ‘D’un matin de printemps’.
The Haydn is a sunny 3-movement work and it received a genial radiant delivery. The first movement’s elegant sonata form featured some lovely chamber dialogue and imitation, as well as sparkling pianism from Hannes Minaar in the runs. The Andante con moto was very minuet-like, formal but with cheeky dotted rhythms that lent it an element of whimsy. The Presto finale was also in 3, with typical Haydn playfulness and mischief and dramatic digressions. Delightful.
The Third has long been my favourite of the three Brahms Piano Trios, and I had been looking forward to hearing it live. I was not disappointed. In the mid-1990s, on a short cycling holiday in County Kerry with a close friend who is an amateur violist, I took some mini-VHS footage with a portable video camera, later dubbing it with my Beaux Arts CD of the Third Trio. I cannot hear that first movement now without seeing the dark torrents of the lovely Kerry Blackwater river in my mind’s eye. The stormy first subject and the passionately affectionate second subject get me every time, and they were perfect. The muted, spooky, conspiratorial scherzo was chillingly excellent; while tiptoeing pizzicato with a furtive creeping piano was no less evocative in the trio. In the slow movement, a sweet love duet between the strings frames a more troubled anxious centre section. It was delicious. The pacy finale opened majestically but managed to reconcile a wealth of contrasting characters: gravitas with passion, curmudgeonly gruffness with lyricism, nobility with frivolity. We got it all, served in an interpretation that rivalled the Beaux Arts’, concluding joyously. Lovely sul-G playing from Maria Milstein’s violin and sweet lyricism from Gideon den Herder’s cello made the last appearance of the affectionate second theme glow. Unforgettable.
The first of the two Lili Boulanger pieces is dominated by a sense of dark foreboding. The melodies are sad and vaguely oriental (like some Debussy), the harmonies unresolved. Tension and anxiety build to a climax. Muted music suggestive of the dawn may dispel the physical darkness, but any relief is short-lived: the dark thoughts remain. The piece concludes with a sense of stoic acceptance and grim determination. We’ve all been there. The second piece seemed more vigorous and hopeful, though hardly carefree at first. This time the sprightly muted central section does elevate the mood. A modal flavour to the melodies lends them a certain detached insouciance, again quite like Debussy. A welcome first hearing of two well-crafted pieces awarded compelling advocacy.
Like ‘Tombeau de Couperin’, a certain elegiac neo-classicism haunts Ravel’s Piano Trio, but it is a far-from-gloomy piece and I love every note of it and am always delighted to catch it live. Doubly so, when the quality of playing and interpretation is that of the Van Baerle. The delicate opening is perhaps autumnal, but gathers vigour before the dreamy idyllic second subject is more of a lazy summer afternoon. Many contrasting moods appear in soft focus in the development, but the shimmering harmonics at the end of the movement are blissful and they were delicious. The mood of ‘La Valse’ seems to permeate the ‘Pantoum’ scherzo, while its ‘trio’ is another sleepy afternoon. The elegiac ‘Passacaille’ rises from the depths, moves in a ghostly cortège with an intense climax, before it recedes and descends to the depths from which it emerged. It received a very moving outing in Dunbar. Excellent. From darkness to brilliance: the animated finale sparkled with irrepressible life-affirming joy. Perfect.
Back to Haydn for an encore: what I assumed was a piano trio arrangement of the slow movement of his Symphony No.102. But actually, it’s the other way round. The symphonic slow movement is in fact an arrangement of the Adagio of the Piano Trio in F-sharp minor, which we heard. Gorgeous.