Newport Music Club marks 50th anniversary year with exceptional concert by Lumas Winds Trio

Florence Plane, bassoon; Rennie Sutherland, clarinet; and Julian Chan, piano, provided a very varied programme of music well suited to their instruments. The rarely heard combination of these instruments necessitated the transposition of some of the works that were performed. For example, the first item on their programme, W. A. Mozart’s Kegelstatt Trio, was originally composed for clarinet, viola and piano but worked extremely well with the bassoon substituting for the viola. The Trio’s performance of this made it seem that Mozart had indeed created the work for this ensemble.

The second item on their programme was by the prolific but rarely heard British composer, Joseph Holbrooke. His short but atmospheric Cyrene Op. 88b of 1930 composed for clarinet and piano was performed with great sensitivity by Rennie and Julian.

Glinka’s Trio Pathetique, the next piece to be performed, was composed for clarinet, bassoon and piano and thus required no transcription. Perhaps surprisingly, given the work’s title, the first movement of this commenced in quite a lively fashion until the final bars of the first movement which turned out to be harbingers of the eventual far darker tone of the music.

Rennie Sutherland then performed the Adagio from J. S. Bach’s Sonata No. 1, originally intended for solo violin but transcribed for solo clarinet and followed this with Igor Stravinski’s Three Pieces for solo clarinet. It was then Julian Chan’s turn to demonstrate his artistry in a piano solo performance of Francis Poulenc’s Trois Novelettes rendered with elan.

Considered by Charles Villiers Stanford as one of his most talented of students, William Yeates Hurlstone sadly died at the early age of 30 in 1906 before his full potential had been realised. Performed by Lumas as their final programmed item, Hurlstone’s Trio in G Minor, actually composed for their instrumentation, was played with great brio by the musicians. Again, the rapport of the three performers was greatly evident.

Florence and Rennie are both members of the quintet, Lumas Winds, described as ‘one to watch’ on Record Review of BBC Radio 3. On this occasion, with Julian joining them, it was their first outing as a trio and their ensemble was so complete that one might have thought that they had regularly performed in this format. Given the first-rate performance provided by the three musicians at this evening’s concert, it seems likely that this offshoot will also be talent to watch out for.

By Alan Swale