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Published OUP, 1925
Recordings Joachim
Piano Trio
Reviews Further Writing
Audio
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Piano Trio (1920-25) Allegro
It is on the strength of his larger scale works, the Symphony, the two concertos and the Sinfonietta, that the reputation of E J Moeran will be assured. However, much of the chamber music is also of high quality. It was a medium in which he always felt at ease, having gained 'inside knowledge' as a 16 year old violin player in his own quartet at school. By the time he came to enter the Royal College of Music two years later Moeran could claim intimate knowledge of all the Haydn quartets, as well as having composed no less than three of his own. Study with Stanford was to be interrupted by military service in the 1914-18 war, so it was not until February 1920 that Moeran was able to return to serious composition. First sketches for the Piano Trio date from this time, followed by a first performance at the Wigmore Hall in November 1921. By the time of its second performance there on 13th June 1925 it had been largely rewritten. If the style in reminiscent of his teacher John Ireland, Moeran's Trio is full of an exuberance firmly set in its intention to announce the arrival of a new voice on the English musical scene. Youth celebrates its new found strength with unrestrained joy; Moeran gives us but one chance to share his optimism which, by 1930, would have become more restrained, and from bitter experience, more introverted and reflective. |
"Youth celebrates its new found strength with unrestrained joy" |
