Pelleas Ensemble, Kendal Midday Concert Club

THE Pelleas Ensemble brought a ray of sunshine into Kendal Town Hall on a drab winter’s day. The three young musicians who make up this ensemble, Oliver Wass, harp, Luba Tunnicliffe, viola, and Henry Roberts, flute, have already established a name for themselves by their interesting programming and the musicality of their performances.

The combination of flute, viola and harp is an unusual one. The usual chamber music trio formation, the piano trio, can present balance problems: pianists are often accused of overwhelming their string playing partners. But there are no such problems in this combination which allows each instrument to establish it own identity and characteristic tone colour, and be heard clearly.

The performance of Arnold Bax’s delightful Elegiac Trio immediately revealed the quality of the ensemble’s playing and the rapport between the three players. Bach’s C major Flute Sonata followed allowing flautist, Henry Roberts, to single out the solo line stylishly with the viola and harp giving effective support.

A recent composition by Benjamin Graves, written for the group, introduced a very different sound world. Unusual techniques and timbres were employed: the harp was ‘prepared’ with blu-tac attached to some strings, and certain strings of both viola and harp were de-tuned a quartertone. All three players explored a wide range of sounds beyond what might be regarded as 'normal.' These effects can be dismissed as 'gimmicks;' but this was not the case in this work which, cast as a scherzo, had a clear structure.

Luba Tunniclife produced a rich warm tone in her performance of two well-known solo pieces by Tchaikovsky, with beautifully shaped phrases and a fine sense of line.

Finally, we heard three movements from Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin. The clever re-arrangement of Ravel’ s original orchestral version for just three instruments worked well. Playing without scores from memory, all three players were clearly in total control of their instruments, playing with sensitivity and musical understanding, and obviously enjoying their performance as much as we enjoyed listening to it.

CLIVE WALKLEY