Trio Shaham Erez Wallfisch

St Mary’s Kirk, Haddington, 22/3/2026

Hagai Shaham (violin), Arnon Erez (piano) and Raphael Wallfisch (cello)

Three o’clock on a sunny afternoon in St Mary’s, Haddington’s lovely out-sized parish kirk. The sizeable audience are housed forward in the long chancel area. Waiting beneath its lofty vaults are a pair of seats and music stands and an improbably magnificent Bösendorfer Concert Grand. This piano is quite the celebrity. Indefatigable music-lovers Haddington Concert Society raised enough in 2005 to pluck it from Vienna. Here it serves local piano-players and learners as County Community Piano whilst still helping the Society and other local impresarios attract top musicians to play here. 

Sunlight fills the performance space, from the big mullioned East window, and from either side. God’s own unadulterated light, you might say, for they are unstained glass, revealing the greenery outside.

World-celebrated Trio Shaham Erez Wallfisch come bearing violin and cello down the aisle. Violinist Hagai Shaham, pianist Arnon Erez and cellist Raphael Wallfisch are bringing us a programme of three contrasting Trios. First, Mozart’s ‘Piano Trio in E Major’ bursts upon us. The piano keys leap and tumble like pebbles in a rushing river, the strings swoop and skim, dancing on top like demoiselles. Each phrase flows like warm honey with a melancholy aftertaste. The men lean in towards each other, honing the timing whilst strikingly at ease.  Shaham’s back is towards me, but I can see Wallfisch constantly checking his partner’s face, as well as checking the score. I was reminded of our art teacher, who told us that in life drawing, one’s eyes should be more on the model than on the paper.

These musicians suffuse their virtuosity with wisdom and emotion. Next, the ‘Piano Trio in G Minor’ by Smetana, strikingly different. This was my stand-out opus of this stand-out concert. Written in memory of Smetana’s gifted little girl who was “torn from us by relentless death at the age of 4 1/2 years”. The playing is unstinting, expressing defiance rather than sadness: spiky cadences, scary tumbles, plaintive high-pitched violin, eerie plucking. Then the two bows are seen to quiver, fast as humming-bird’s wings; Erez’ fingers hurtle up and down the Bösendorfer which thrills as he commands its sonorous bottom notes. Premiered in 1855, here it sounds surprisingly modern.

The audience were elated and went about the ensuing tea interval in a daze, stranger smiling at stranger, including the mayor in his chain of office, all enthusing about the stellar performance.

Then came Brahms’ ‘Piano Trio No 2 in C Major’. For me, this was less striking than the first two pieces, though performed with equal mastery and heart. The applause, loud and long, was rewarded with an encore: an extract from Dvorak. Rapid, saucy with spinning-tops and virtuoso fingering, it raced to a final flourish that left us laughing.

The afternoon ended with a glass of wine and news of Haddington Concert Society’s ambitious programme for the coming year, their 40th anniversary. We also met the performers. They had loved the ambience and relished adapting to the acoustic of this stony, high-vaulted space.  And I was touched that these world-class players were so pleased by their reception in this little-known Hidden-Toon of Scotland.

My natural home is with ethnic music, but I do enjoy classical concerts. This one delighted me more than any other.