Lammermuir Festival: Van Baerle Trio 2
Holy Trinity Church, Haddington, 5/9/2025
Hannes Minaar (piano), Maria Milstein (violin), Gideon den Herder (cello)
The Van Baerle Trio returned to Haddington’s Holy Trinity Church on the morning of 5th September to start the second day of the Lammermuir Festival with a programme featuring Brahms’ Second Piano Trio. The concert opened with Mozart’s 3-movement G-major Piano Trio K496. BBC microphones were present to record the concert for later broadcast on Radio 3 and subsequent online accessibility via BBC Sounds. I will always laud the BBC’s involvement in Scotland’s summer festivals, but I confess to missing the days of live radio broadcasts which, it would appear, have gone the way of the dodo.
The piano in the Mozart was a master of ceremonies, introducing the cheerful themes ornately and virtuosically, generally steering the mood. Hannes Minaar’s eloquent pianistic articulation framed this to perfection. At first, his conversation was with Maria Milstein’s violin but then Mozart let the piano step back to provide harmonic and rhythmic support, giving the most elegant chamber dialogue to the strings, fully exploited by glorious tone from Gideon den Herder’s cello. The sunny sonata-form first movement thus spread a spirit of genial bonhomie. The Andante looked like it was going to follow a similar pattern, and it was indeed very elegant, but it had some quite adventurous key explorations and passages of contrapuntal ingenuity that made it an intriguing and engaging listen, all deliciously pointed by the playing of the Van Baerle Trio. The finale, an inventive theme-and-variations, a form in which Mozart excelled, was awarded the utmost advocacy with playing that radiated the joy that the musicians experienced in performing it. The theme is a stately gavotte, but the instruments vied with each other to transform it dramatically. My favourite variation is the fourth, in which a gloomy Eeyore-like cello ladles on the pathos, and it was exquisite. But then the fifth, a slower strutting pavane, has to be reckoned a close second. A dramatic and very operatic piano cadenza heralded the final joyous variation. Superb.
Fully switched-on Brahmsian romanticism is the stuff of the Piano Trio No 2 in C major Op 87. The first movement is brimming with themes. The first is heroic and confident; the second (after a bridge passage) a schmaltzy Viennese song. But there are at least two others that lend themselves to turbulent passionate treatment and, needless to say, Brahms goes there. Unusually, despite Brahms’ fame for rich harmony, the strings often declaim in unison, lending their voice a surprising intensity. The second movement, in the relative A-minor, showcases Brahms’ prowess with the theme-and-variations format. The theme is a lament with a Hungarian flavour. The 5 variations all have individual character, some lyrical, some declarative, some tender. They were spellbinding. The furtive conspiratorial Scherzo scurried menacingly in C minor and gave me goosebumps, while the contrasting tender schmaltzy Trio brimmed with warmth of feeling. Magical. The ebullient finale bowled along with confidence as if setting out on a great journey. A contemplative moment of satisfied reflection before the joyous coda made it all the more life-affirming. Top-quality performance.
I wrote in my review of the Brahms First Trio the previous morning that the Van Baerle Trio have nothing to fear from comparison with the legacy of the Beaux Arts Trio. I read with interest in my programme notes from this concert that they met the late Menahem Pressler, pianist of the Beaux Arts, in 2008 and subsequently played for him on several occasions. So I am moved to say that, far from being compared with the legacy of the Beaux Arts, they are the legacy of the Beaux Arts.
And, I still have the Third Brahms Trio, my favourite, to look forward to. It’s a tough life.