37. Young Musicians Series

London-based Paddington Trio is already a winner of several competitions. The Finnish violinist, Irish cellist and American pianist founded their Trio four years ago and are building a reputation for their exuberant energy. Haydn’s so-called Gypsy Trio is perhaps the first well-known piano trio though it is but one of around forty other Trios that he wrote. Its fame rests on the crazy presto Hungarian finale. Sam Perkin is an Irish composer from Cork now resident in France. Shostakovich wrote his Second Piano Trio in 1944 in memory of a young composer friend, Benjamin Fleyschman, who had been killed in the War. Soon after his great friend Ivan Sollertinsky died of a heart attack, so the Trio was also for him. The slow movement is a heartrending funeral march for his two friends and for all the millions of wartime dead, both then and now.