21st June 2024
A performance of Hadyn and Schubert pieces by the up and coming Astatine Trio brought an appreciative and engaged audience from across the county to Ripe Church on Midsummer Evening.
The Villages Music Festival, essentially a bi-ennial event, keeps the flag waving with one-off performances - and this was one of the very best. The trio - sisters Berniya and Riya Hamie (on piano and cello), joined by Maja Horvat (violin) - joined up at the Royal College of Music in 2021, and already have a long list of prizes and debuts in their credits.
They've played the Wigmore Hall and Snape Maltings, and earlier this year featured on Radio 3's In Tune.
Their programme at Ripe was played with energy and enjoyment; those in the audience new to Hadyn's Piano Trio in E flat major Hob XV:29 found it absorbing, accessible and tuneful. The longer Schubert Piano Trio no.2 in E flat major D929 contains the theme used in Stanley Kubrick's 1975 film, Barry Lyndon, interwoven with a generous complement of melodies and variations. Again, the audience were with Berniya, Riya and Maja all the way as the lead lines passed between them with a glance and a smile.
We'll now watch The Astatine Trio's progress with some small pride, and hope, perhaps, to have them back in the future.
pictures by Bill Rogers