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Shaham-Erez-Wallfisch piano trio

Hagai Shaham in Interview

This is the first recording you have made together as a trio. Why did you choose the Mendelssohn Trios to start off with? This First Trio was the first piece we played together. It's still very fresh music that we feel we can offer something interesting with. And we thought that the two works would be a good 'visiting card' for us as a trio, not least because we've done two tours with them already.

How do the two trios compare and contrast? The First is more memorably melodic, especially in the first movement. The Second is more serious. Both have very energetic, fast scherzos, but the First's is livelier, in a major key and altogether happier. In the Second Trio, meanwhile, you have that memorable moment of the chorale. It's almost a religious moment and very symphonic - I can hear the whole orchestra there, or perhaps a church organ!

Mendelssohn himself wrote that the piano part of the Second Trio was 'a bit beastly'. How well does he write for the violin? Mendelssohn's violin writing is very fine in general. It sits much better in the hands than say Schumann's or even Brahms's writing. He had a natural feeling for the instrument. It can be very difficult and very fast, of course, plus it changes from very light to romantic. So, there are plenty of other problems, but the patterns and the melodic line are never awkward.

And by 'fast', you mean really fast. So much so that the correct metronome markings in the scherzo are rarely followed ... Yes, if you look at the score, Mendelssohn's metronome markings are very extreme. There's one in the First Trio that is almost impossible. We tried, and got pretty close ... but I don't think one should reallyy listen to it with a metronome! We don't, for a start, actually know how accurate Mendelssohn's metronome was, plus some composers got very over-excited in terms of metronome markings. And then you have to take into account the acoustics: if it's a wet acoustic with lots of reverb, you can't always hear all the notes if you play at Mendelssohn's tempos. The important thing is getting the character.
Interview by Jeremy Pound
Disc released next month