THE WAKEFORD TRIO
8th July 2006 7.30pm Rook Lane Chapel Code: 0818 Author: Ann Burgess
This evening, the Wakeford Trio gave the first of this year's concerts, organised by Maureen Lehane Wishart, in connection with Jackdaws, as part of the Frome Festival.
What is it, that is so special about the harp? Whether we first encounter it in Tchaikovsky ballet music or Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra , or Prokofiev's Cinderella , it has a quality of magic unlike any other orchestral instrument. So, there was a large audience at Rook Lane Chapel, and if they were in search of magic, they were not to be disappointed.
Lucy Wakeford (harp), Siobhan Grealy (flute) and Richard May (cello) created a most beautiful sound-world, perfectly suited to the nineteenth and twentieth-century compositions in their programme.
The concert opened with a flute sonata by J S Bach, in which flute and cello played with wonderful baroque articulation, but this really could not be matched by the harp, playing continuo, through no fault of the player, but because of the nature of harp sound, which is so resonant that it can hardly take the place of a harpsichord. However, this was my only reservation of the evening, and throughout the concert, the Wakeford Trio went from strength to strength.
After the Bach, we were swiftly transported to France for three romantic sketches by Gaubert. Now the harp could be itself.
After the colourful, Jet Whistle by Villa-Lobos for flute and cello, it was interesting to hear a trio arrangement of Ravel's Sonatine, originally for piano. This worked very well, the players caressing the music.
The second half of the concert began with William Alwyn's Naiades- Fantasy Sonata for flute and harp, which was exquisite in its dynamic contrasts, from a whisper to a shout.
With the Wakeford Trio, technique was so assured that there was no need to consider it: the musicians were their instruments so that nothing came between them and the music.
Highpoints were the two pieces by Joseph Jongen, which demonstrated a very beautiful interweaving of instrumental parts, and the Trio by the contemporary Jean-Michel Damase, sensual, deliciously dissonant at the close of the second movement and displaying a perfect equality .
My vicar does not like preaching about the Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, because it is so difficult to explain how three beings can be one. He should have heard the Wakeford Trio tonight.
Ann Burgess
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