Moricosta String Trio and Martin Roscoe, pianoforte

Rochdale Music Society’s 2015-16 Concert Series began with some exceptionally fine performances of music from the romantic era by the members of the Moricosta String Trio and Martin Roscoe, pianoforte.

String Trios by Franz Schubert, the earliest of the three romantic composers featured in the programme, graced the opening of both halves of the concert. The latter one (D581 from 1817) came first, and, by its geniality and tuneful accessibility, gave the audience a very pleasant opportunity to settle into the refined atmosphere of chamber music. The players - violinist Lucy Baker-Stockdale, violist, Steven Burnard, and cellist, Jessica Burroughs - showed their well-seasoned musicianship and artistic depth of understanding in their enchanting realisation of the composer’s song-like intentions. The acoustic of the Heywood Civic Centre played its part, too, in enhancing their combined sounds.

Martin Roscoe, who joined the string players for a performance of Schumann’s only Piano Quartet (1842), is a pianist of international stature and accomplishment who can always be relied on to enhance the platform as soloist or in association with other instrumentalists. No wonder, then, that he provided the perfect piano contribution to the intense feeling and animated conversation which characterise the outer movements, and added his dexterity to the excitement of the fast flowing Scherzo and his lyrical touch to the magical world of the slow, third movement of Schumann’s masterwork.

The single movement String Trio (D471 from 1816) by Schubert, which graced the opening of the second half of the concert, again showed the assurance and skill of the Moricosta artistes, and proved a delightful hors d’oeuvre to the main course of Fauré’s Piano Quartet in C minor (1876-83).

This Quartet is one of the composer’s early works, but it shows an extraordinary artistic maturity and makes very considerable demands on its performers. From the to the bold, but restrained, opening theme of the first movement through the light-fantastic-toe-skipping passages of the Scherzo and the elegiac and noble melodies of the slow movement to the final movement’s flamboyant and heroic gestures the players are not given more than a fleeting moment’s respite. When, as was the case with the Moricosta Trio and Martin Roscoe, they respond to this challenge with such technical assurance and aplomb, they combine to communicate musical truths of abiding significance. One could wish that the hall had been filled to capacity with Rochdale people responding with joy to the sound of such music so expertly contrived.