The Society’s new season got off to a flying start on Monday night with a presentation by Frida Backman of the Backman Trio. The substance of her talk was the making of a music CD which rather underplays what might have been a rather workmanlike presentation. However, it was much more than that. Frida had uncovered a previously unpublished work by Sibelius no less, which they had managed to piece together and perform as part of their first CD.
Frida won’t be unknown to local music lovers and only last Friday, she performed with Salisbury based pianist Lynda Smith in Sarum College as part of their lunch time series of concerts. The Trio was founded in 2009 in London by British pianist Marcus Andrews, Finnish violinist Freda Backman and British cellist, Ruth Beedham. In 2014 they returned to Finland and performed at the Aino Atke festival in Helsinki as part of the CD launch. With financial support from the Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland, the group was able to resurrect the composer Eric Bergman’s piano Trio No 2 of which we heard an extract. Bergman (1911 – 2006) is another of those composers of whom little is heard today but he has a large repertoire of work.
Frida went through the lengthy process of making a CD and included a discussion of the differences between a live and studio performance. With the former of course, there is only one chance and the tension is high to get it right. A studio performance on the other hand involves many hours of takes and retakes and keeping the performance fresh can be difficult to achieve. Unless one is lucky to have a recording contract, there are the costs to consider and then how to launch and promote the finished thing.
The evening ended with a performance of a previously unknown work by Sibelius – Fantasia, performed by the group. It was remarkably accessible and the recording was – in the opinion of the writer – clear, well balanced and bright. It is available from the Collectors Room in Salisbury UK.
A most enjoyable and informative evening.
Salisbury Recorded Music Society 