Score and parts on special sale from the Hire Library

I. Larghetto
II. Sostenuto
III. Scurrying
IV. Coda. Calmo

My previous piano trio, written several years ago, was called Nowhere to Hide, whose title came from John Adams’ immediate response when I told him that I was writing a piano trio. So this sequel, which the London Bridge Trio proposed two years ago, seemed to demand a similar title, which at the time was a provisional one. I haven’t wanted to change it, although what the ‘hidden agenda’ is is still not entirely clear to me now that the work is complete – it relates, perhaps, more to the extended process of composition that to any underlying programmatic content.  But it is certainly a better title than the prosaic alternative,  ‘Piano Trio no 2’!

The first two movements, written and performed last year, consist of  a declamatory and forceful introduction dominated by the piano, which gives way to a gentle sequence of descending chords with more lyrical writing for the strings, then a brief scherzo-like section leading back to a quiet reprise of the opening. In. the second movement, the piano’s similarly descending chords are decorated by muted flurries from the strings. The faster material from the first movement becomes both the basis for the third  - whose marking ‘Scurrying’ says all that needs to be said – and, slowed down, for the final movement, which ends with a quite reflection on the opening of the work.

CM