This Australian trio of Amir Farid (piano), Lachlan Bramble (violin), and Ewan Bramble (cello) delights with its precision and youthful vitality. It plays sparkling chamber music by four compatriots, who prove they are highly innovative and entertaining composers. All world premiere recordings, the programme opens with Ross Edwards' Piano Trio (1998), a powerful work in which the third movement displays relentless energy.
Paul Stanhope's Dolcissimo Uscignolo (2007) extracts playful elements from a Monteverdi madrigal, and Nicholas Buc's Trailer Music (2010, commissioned by the trio) is a collage of music inspired by pre-film advertising. The outstanding Piano Trio (2007), by Matthew Hindson, is full of invention, opening with a moto perpetuo, a more lyrical second movement, then closing with Epic Diva. Don't miss this disc!
Highlight: Exciting new modern trios.
George Frederick Boyle (1886-1948), completely forgotten today, toured 280 cities and towns in Australia and New Zealand as pianist in 1901. He impressed pianist Paderewski, who gave him advice and he became a protege of Busoni in Europe. In 1910, he was made head of the piano department at the Peabody Institute, Baltimore, and in 1924 joined the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia and soon became associated with Backhaus and the future Juilliard School of Music.
Timothy Young, applauded pianist across the Tasman, dexterously plays Ballade (1921), Sonata (1925), and Five Piano Pieces (1921), all appealing works mostly dedicated to musicians. Boyle is an interesting composer, and obviously a talented pianist to write such rapturous music.
Highlight: Piano music deservedly revived.
