Isabelle Faust, Jean-Guihen Queyras & Alexander Melnikov, Wigmore Hall

The romantic meets the modern in this recital, which brings together three of classical music’s outstanding soloists to form a veritable piano trio supergroup. There’s the violinist Isabelle Faust, who has won prize after prize for her recordings of Bach, Beethoven and Bartok. There’s pianist Alexander Melnikov, Faust’s regular accompanist and a laurel-sweeping master himself. And, last but by no means least, there’s the cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras, a collaborator with both last and this year’s Wigmore Hall Artist-in-Residence. Whenever these three have played together before, the reception has been ecstatic, so it seems unlikely that they will end their winning streak here.
The programme pairs the great German romantics Schubert and Schumann with the contemporary Italian master Salvatore Sciarrino. First up is Schumann, whose Piano Trio No. 3 (1851) commences proceedings with a flourishing sonata movement before taking listeners on a whistle-stop tour through passages both soft and stormy, heroic and tragic. It can feel akin to a primer on romanticism, showcasing the best of the era’s effects.
Sciarrino’s Piano Trio No. 2 (1987) is an altogether different beast, written over a century later than the Schumann but at the same age. In its composer’s words, it is “dry and defiant”, “something marvelous and altogether mechanical.” The fantastical trilling of the strings is counterpoised with thunderous chords from the piano, creating a surreal, shifting soundworld.
After an interval, the recital concludes with Schubert’s gargantuan Piano Trio No. 1 (1828), completed in the final year of his all-too-brief life. It is an astonishing combination of the epic and the intimate, invoking both universal feelings and domestic contentment. It abounds with instantly memorable melodies and joyous lyricism, galloping along through some of its supremely talented composer’s very best music. After the glorious tumult of Schumann and Sciarrino, this should be an exquisite burst of exhilarating bliss.