Ireland: Phantasie in A minor for piano trio
Ian Venables: ‘Out of the Shadows’ Op. 55 (premiere)
Interval
Schubert: Piano Trio in B-flat major, D.898

Gareth Brynmor John, baritone
Phoenix Piano Trio – Jonathan Stone, violin; Christian Elliott, cello; Sholto Kynoch, piano

SJE Arts is delighted to be hosting the premiere of ‘Out of the Shadows’, a song cycle scored for baritone, violin, cello and piano by renowned British composer, Ian Venables.

Although he works across many genres, Ian Venables is known especially for his art songs. He has written more than sixty and has been variously hailed as ‘Britain’s greatest living composer of art songs’ (Musical Opinion) and ‘…a song composer as fine as Finzi and Gurney’ (BBC Music Magazine). Winner of the 2013 Kathleen Ferrier Award, baritone Gareth Brynmor John, joins Phoenix Piano Trio to give the premiere.

Alongside the cycle and to complement it, Phoenix Piano Trio opens with John Ireland’s single movement Phantasie. Following the interval they perform a piano trio that Schubert composed in the last year of his life. This is hard to believe. It is a wonderfully lyrical and life-affirming piece with echoes of Viennese popular music, of lullabies and the song of a gondolier.

This concert is generously supported by the Morris-Venables Charitable Foundation.