College Record 2014

Music Society: the Fournier Trio
The Fournier Trio’s concerts have become a termly treat in the Wolfson calendar.
As always, the programme for their Trinity concert was broad and adventurous.
The first half began with a little-known set of variations by Beethoven, and ended
with Frank Bridge’s complex and mysterious Fantasie. The two pieces displayed the
two sides of of the trio’s playing, the first a sort of innocent delight and joyfulness,
and the second a weighty, sustained cohesiveness. The second half was devoted to a
classic Mendelssohn trio, played with real energy, yet letting its wonderful, soaring
melodies rise up.
At the heart of the concert was the premiere of a work by Wolfson’s Creative Arts
Fellow, John Duggan, written specially for the Fournier Trio. Duggan’s work
uses the miniature form that is common in choral music, and transplants it to the
piano trio. This seven-movement series hints at Christ’s Seven Last Words on the
Cross, building on a musical tradition from Haydn to James Macmillan. What
stands out in the work is its variety: Duggan explores different soundscapes that
the three instruments can produce, and offers distinct harmonic worlds in each of
the miniatures. Some, like the first and fourth, push tonality to its seams, whereas
others, like the second and fifth, soften into meditative spirituals, at times filmic, at
times exotic. The second movement is a particular highlight, living up to its name
‘A Taste of Paradise’: over the piano’s ripple-whisper arpeggios, cello and violin
sing their calm, still duet.
The Leonard Wolfson Auditorium is a beautiful space for concerts such as these:
with the lights dimmed, it is intimate and the acoustics are warm. The Fournier Trio
are enthusiastic performers: their passion emerges through the sheer physicality of
their playing, which brings life to the full range of music in the programme, from
delicate moments and soaring melodies to rhythmic bounce and explosive fury.
Leo Mercer
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