TICKETS are selling fast for Wye Valley Music’s next concert by the London Bridge Trio on Sunday, May 14th, at 3pm in St. Briavels Church (GL15 6RG).

The London Bridge Trio are one of Britain’s leading chamber ensembles, known for their deeply nuanced and searching interpretations and they perform frequently in London, notably at the Wigmore Hall and Kings Place and are frequently heard on Radio 3.

The players are already well known to local audiences as regular performers at the annual Wye Valley Chamber Music Festival, of which pianist Daniel Tong is co-director whilst Ben Hancox (violin) and Cara Berridge (cello) are founder members of the acclaimed Sacconi Quartet.

The London Bridge Trio’s mastery of the early Romantic repertoire has led to two critically acclaimed recordings, one of which, ‘The Leipzig Circle’ was described by The Telegraph as “a total delight”.

The first half of the concert will feature works by two members of that circle, Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn.

An account of these women’s lives inevitably focuses on the challenges they both faced as composers, quoting Robert Schumann (Clara’s husband)’s recognition of the “deleterious effect of the pram in the hall” or referencing Fanny’s brother Felix passing her compositions off as his own.

The two pieces that the London Bridge Trio have chosen - Schumann’s Three Romances for Violin and Piano, Op. 22 and Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio in D Minor, Op. 11 – are a perfect illustration of both composers’ ultimate triumph in the face of adversity.

Mendelssohn’s Trio was submitted for posthumous publication by the very family that had actively discouraged her from publishing while she was alive.

And Schumann’s Romances, although written at a time of peak creative frustration for her, with her raging that “women are not born to compose”, were an immediate hit: the King of Hanover was described as being “completely ecstatic” upon hearing them.

The second half of the programme will feature Franz Schubert’s Piano Trio in E flat, D929, one of his last compositions completed just a year before his death and regarded as one of the greatest piano trios in the traditional repertory.

Tickets are £18 (£15 for WVM members and £5 for students 25 and under).

A printed programme is included in the ticket price.

To buy tickets, visit the website at www.wyevalleymusic.org.uk and follow the links.

If you have any difficulty booking, please leave a message on our help line 01291 330020.