Trio Ran consists of violinist Alican Süner (a former member of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra), Çağ Erçağ (the former cellist of the Borusan Quartet) and pianist İris Şentürker, who was chosen as ‘Young Musician of the Year’ by the British Council in 1998. Their programme will consist of two works, both of which are of a substantial nature: Brahms’s Piano Trio No 1 in B major and Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No 1 in D minor.
Johannes Brahms’s four-movement Piano Trio No 1 was completed in 1854, when the composer was only 20 years old. In 1889 it was extensively revised – so much so that the revised version is sometimes considered to be a separate work. Orrin Howard, writing on the ‘LAPhil’ website, remarks that ‘It’s impossible to know exactly what Brahms at 56 intended to do to change what Brahms at 21 had written, but the first thing he did not do was tamper with the gorgeous lyric melody that the piano alone sings in its mellow alto register to begin the trio.’
Felix Mendelssohn’s four-movement Piano Trio No 1, one of the composer’s most popular chamber works, was completed in 1839. After hearing this piece, Schumann proclaimed Mendelssohn to be ‘the Mozart of the nineteenth century, the brightest musician, who most clearly understands the contradictions of the age and is the first to reconcile them.’ Like the Brahms trio, this work was subsequently revised, giving it a more romantic style and a more prominent piano part.
Issue 67, December 2024
Beauty in the Wilderness
