Merz Trio

Saturday, October 7, 2023 | 8:00 pm

Chamber Arts Series

Baldwin Auditorium

Outstanding solo musicians, the Merz Trio has grabbed headlines across the globe for their ‘entrancing, dynamic performances’ (BBC Music Magazine) and ‘stunning virtuosity’ (Reading Eagle). Juxtaposing dynamic new music with forgotten and familiar works, they are an ensemble to watch.    

The trio brings a typically dynamic program to the Chamber Arts Series, with works spanning over 300 years. This program explores a central element in the music of Latvian composer, Pēteris Vasks: the struggle between the forces of darkness and light. Movements from Vasks’ Episodi e canto perpetuo find musical foils in episodes along the way: Weinberg’s Op. 24 Piano Trio, a work written in 1945, a product of war and refuge, the sense of mirroring and reflection in Schumann’s canon for pedal piano, our arrangement of Landi’s Augellin which takes ideas from Messiaen’s Quatour, conceived as a pairing for Vasks’ work that itself pays homage to Messiaen. Midway, you’ll find a moment of reprieve in Purcell’s lullaby before the disintegration and sense of refraction that ensues in Sokolovic’s Portrait Parle. Schumann, as a composer who embodies this struggle vividly in both his music and his life, finishes the program with his glorious F major trio, at times a sublime bath of light though not without its moments of shadowy uncertainty and inner search.

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Program

Sense of joyful virtuosity