Ireland's Three Piano Trios

Reviewed by J Scott Morrison, 2009-06-24

John Ireland (1879-1962) wrote a fair amount of chamber music, including the three piano trios included on this disc. The first of them is an early work, entered in the then-famous annual competition for chamber works sponsored by the wealthy patron, Walter Willson Cobbett, whose condition for a work's entry was that it should imitate the English Renaissance form of the 'Fantasie' or 'Fancy' as practiced by such composers as Orlando Gibbons. (Hence, there is a clutch of early twentieth-century English compositions called 'Fantasie','Phantasie' or 'Fantasia.') Ireland's 'Phantasie Trio in A Minor' (1908) (which placed second to a work by Frank Bridge) is a one-movement work lasting about twelve minutes. It has four clearly delineated sections, is written in a rhapsodic, charmingly melodic, and confident style. It is played here with grace by the Gould Trio, a group whose previous recordings have been justly lauded Brahms: Complete Piano Trios, Stanford: Clarinet Sonata; Piano Trio No. 3.

The Second Trio in E Major (1917), written during the horrors of World War I, is altogether more astringent in style, reflecting Ireland's reaction to the war. There are grim marches, melancholy tunes, spare harmonies. It is also in one movement and lasts about twelve minutes. Ireland is quoted as saying that the Allegro giusto section depicts 'the boys over the top of the trenches.'

The Third Trio, also in E Major (1938), originated back in 1912-13 as a trio for clarinet, cello and piano and was extensively rewritten in a different key for the more usual combination of violin, cello and piano. It is dedicated to Ireland's younger colleague, William Walton, whose recently premièred First Symphony (surely one of the greatest treasures of pre-war English music) had much impressed Ireland. The Trio, in four movements, contains some of Ireland's most immediately lovable music, including an impish Scherzo and an Andante of long-limbed cantilenas. The Trio is a striking mix of Ireland's earlier and later styles.

The disc is filled out with smaller pieces for violin and piano, here played by Lucy Gould and Benjamin Frith. Included are the very early Berceuse (1902) and Cavatina (1904), both superior salon music á la Elgar's 'Salut d'amour'. The Bagatelle (1911) is a light-hearted humoresque. The final work is the familiar (and lovely) 'The Holy Boy' in its violin-and-piano version.

The playing of the Gould Trio (Gould, Alice Neary, cello, and Frith) is superb throughout. Recorded sound is clear and lifelike. This issue can be recommended to those who love early twentieth-century British chamber music or want to explore this somewhat neglected corner of the repertoire.

Scott Morrison