The Delphine Trio played for us here in Luton for the first time in May last year and it was immediately clear that the audience would be delighted if they were to return. So here they are in a programme that neatly engages with our season’s theme of The Relationship between Literature, Art & Music.

The Ireland trio is a fascinating work evolving in three incarnations over a number of years. There is no direct association with specific literature but the composer’s love of the written word (the fantasies of Arthur Machen and the Satyricon of Petronius, for example) was always an indirect influence on his musical aesthetic. Per Nørgård’s Spell explores a gentle play on words, suggesting how the letters of the notes are spelled out into the shapes that cast the magical spell of the music – the alchemy of the language itself.

The Beethoven trio is sometimes known as the Gassenhauer Trio. This arose from its third movement which contains nine variations on a theme from Joseph Weigl’s then popular L’amor marinaro ossia Il corsaro. The melody, Pria ch’io l’impegno (Before I go to work), was so popular it could be heard in many of Vienna’s lanes (Gasse in German). A Gassenhauer therefore usually denotes a simple tune that many people (in the Gassen) have taken up, whistling and singing it as they go about their lives.

Daniel Schnyder’s A Friday Night in August is a splendidly atmospheric piece, synergising the metropolitan vibe of 90s Manhattan echoing to the open-air sounds of the Caribbean. Meanwhile the Juon which closes the concert is a straightforward portrait of nymphs and satyrs taken from the pages of Classical mythology. I hope you’ll enjoy this wonderfully varied programmatic feast!

Richard Sisson (Chair of Luton Music)