5. Crespo Series
The next two concerts celebrate the strange translucent world of the recently departed Finnish composer, Kaija Saariaho, with two key works, each paired with a mighty work by Schubert. The young Paddington Trio play her spectral ‘Light and Matter’ inspired by the continuous transformation of the glittering light reflected from the leaves of a tree outside her window in contrast to the solidity and immobility of tree's trunk. Schubert’s B flat Trio is surely the most popular of all piano trios with its generous succession of glorious themes. The miracle of this masterpiece of light-hearted Viennese charm is that Schubert composed it while taking a break in the middle of his most famous tale of inward suffering and loneliness, Winterreise. Listening to this joyful and uninhibited work, especially its exhilarating Finale, we are reminded that Schubert was still a young man, barely thirty years old, overflowing with music and joie de vivre.
