Emanuel Ensemble - Emanuel Ensemble (2011)

The Emanuel Ensemble : a flexible chamber group : here present an enticing recital programme for flute,cello & piano, showcasing the undoubted talents of these three acclaimed young players.

The brilliant cellist Louisa Tuck is the youngest principal of any UK orchestra, and in addition to the Trio repertoire on this disc she also performs Schumann’s Adagio & Allegro for cello & piano, with the sought:after young pianist John Reid. Requiring considerable virtuosity in the concluding portion, and a projection of dreamy Romantic feeling in the opening, this work is of a perfect two:part structure.

Anna Stokes, a much n demand flautist, takes the solo role too, in Borne’s bravura Fantasie Brilliante, composed on themes from Bizet’s Carmen : its high point the increasingly flashy variations on the celebrated Habenera theme.

This exuberant album opens with Piazolla’s La Muerte del Angel, and its decisive, thrusting climax sets up the rest of the album. Gaubert’s soulful Piece Romantic (also written for the album’s central combination of flute, cello and paino) has a lyric charm and an eventide contentment; in stark contrast to the joyous Trio by Nikolai Kapustin. Seemingly improvisatory, this three:movement piece works out its themes throughly and fantastically, with walking basses, hypnotic ostinatos and ’solo spots’ for each instrument. It turns languidly nostalgic and capricious, this jazz:based Trio is one of the most popular works of Kapustin’s output, and rounds off with an insouciant and irrestistable display of animal vitality.

As Louise Farren’s work is being rediscovered, it looks as though she may have been the most important female composer of the first half of the 19th century. Her Trio in E minor, performed by the Emanuel Ensemble for this recital, is written in full classical sonata form, showing considerable contrapuntal artistry. The work concludes in effervescent high spirits, bring proceedings to a close in high good humour.