Concert trio – Haydn, Fontyn, Mendelssohn

Joseph Haydn, Trio No. 5 in G minor, Hob. XV1

Jacqueline Fontyn, Lieber Joseph (2009)

Felix Mendelssohn, Trio No. 2 in C minor, op. 66

Spilliaert Trio …

Named in homage to the Belgian painter Léon Spilliaert (1881-1946), the Spilliaert Trio, which was formed ten years ago, has set itself the goal of defending the Belgian repertoire, both through rediscoveries and creation. Over the years, he has established himself as a major player on the national scene, receiving the Caecilia Prize in 2023 for his recording dedicated to the trios of Jacqueline Fontyn (Cybele, 2022); as well as the Fuga Prize from the Union of Belgian Composers. Very eclectic in their approach, among their latest productions we can cite the show Spilliaert’s Moonlights with dance and projection (May 2023), the short film « Rencontre sous notre Lune » by Isabelle Françaix with music by Alithéa Ripoll (October 2023), as well as a new record Augusta, in collaboration with the Irish collective Sonic Gates.

The discipline of the string trio with piano is particularly demanding, and its perfect balance requires a deep knowledge of each instrument. The choice of the Spilliaert Trio, with Trio No. 5 in G minor Hob XV1, highlights a great delicacy, very Mozartian but also an astonishing virtuosity and lightness…

The composers…

Joseph Haydn ( 1732-1809)

Joseph Haydn composed, in the middle of a very dense body of work, 45 Piano Trios between 1750 and 1796, whose richness and expressive depth are musically on the same level as the string quartets. His musical career covers the entire classical period, from the end of Baroque music to the beginnings of Romanticism. It is both the bridge and the engine that enabled this evolution. Haydn is called the father of the symphony

Jacqueline Fontyn

Born in Antwerp in 1930, Jacqueline Fontyn proved very talented at the piano at a very young age. The excellent Russian teacher Ignace Bolotine gives him daily piano and improvisation lessons! At 6 years old, she wrote her first composition. At 15, she decided to become a composer.

She learned musical writing, harmony, counterpoint, fugue and especially composition and orchestration. And in Paris, she discovered the world of Schoenberg.

In 1956, she attended Hans Swarowsky’s conducting class at the Vienna Academy. A quarter of a century later, she will be invited to conduct, for two years, the orchestra formed by students and professors of the Catholic University of Louvain-la-Neuve. From 1956 to 1959, she stayed at the Queen Elisabeth Musical Chapel in Waterloo, from which she graduated.

From 1963, she taught music theory at the Royal Conservatory of Antwerp; in 1970, she was appointed professor of composition at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, a position she left in 1990, to respond to numerous invitations from foreign universities and conservatories, particularly from Europe (Germany, France, Hungary, the Netherlands). Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia, Switzerland), the United States (from New York to San Francisco), Israel, Egypt, Asia (China, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan) and New Zealand.

Among the distinctions awarded to him include the Oscar Espla Prize in Spain and the Arthur Honegger Prize of the Fondation de France, the commission of the Violin Concerto imposed at the finals of the « Queen Elisabeth Competition » in 1976, as well as two commissions for the Koussevitzky Foundation at the Library of Congress in Washington.

Since 2006, a significant portion of his manuscripts have been preserved at the Library of Congress. In 2014, the Royal Library of Belgium acquired the manuscripts remaining in the country.

Jacqueline Fontyn is a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences, Letters and Fine Arts of Belgium; in 1993, she was conferred the title of Baroness by the King, in recognition of her artistic merits.

Félix Mendelssohn ( 1809-1047)

We no longer present Felix Mendelssohn, wonderful German composer, pianist and conductor, child prodigy and so fertile (321 works in so few years), made famous by the Wedding March from A Midsummer Night’s Dream… After the Second World War (the Nazis banned his works from the repertoire); it returns in force, to the heart of classicism and romanticism, and regains its letters of nobility for our great happiness.

This is the second trio for piano, violin, cello by Félix Mendelssohn, which you will hear on March 24, less known than the first, but largely as beautiful!

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You will experience a great moment of music listening to the three works presented at the Salon Bugrane by the Trio Spilliaert who have defended, with great talent, the masterpieces of past centuries as well as those of the 21st century, for more than a decade…