FairPlay Festival – An Afternoon with Schubert

Three favourites from the history of Fairplay Chamber Music: Amy Beach’s Piano Trio, Bo Linde’s Violin Sonata and Franz Schubert’s String Quintet. All three composers have featured on several occasions during the ten-year history of the festival. On stage are some of Europe’s finest chamber musicians, including the festival’s artistic directors: the cellist Jakob Koranyi and the pianist Peter Friis Johansson.

The American pioneer Amy Beach’s Piano Trio is warm and heartfelt music from 1938. Here we find singable themes, a deeply expressive middle movement and a finale infused with energy and folk-inspired nuances. Lyricism and rhythm are also present in Bo Linde’s Violin Sonata from 1953. The Gävle-born composer showcases both the brilliance of the violin and the rich palette of the piano, at times with striking virtuosity.

The String Quintet in C major is Franz Schubert’s final major chamber work, completed in the autumn of 1828, and a masterpiece of both depth and infinite beauty. The unusual scoring with two cellos lends the music a symphonic richness of sound and warmth. It is among the most beautiful music ever written, and the second movement is almost otherworldly.

***