Trio Lys – North Sea coast

Trio Lys

North Sea coast

Beaches, cliffs and stormy spray – the North Sea and its coastal landscapes have been immortalised for centuries in countless paintings, poems, writings and musical compositions – mostly as a romantic symbol of boundless longing, wildness and the untameable. We also encounter this symbolism on our musical journey through the North Sea nations of Denmark and Great Britain. Here, we juxtapose tradition and modernity, combining expression with tone painting to create a richly contrasting soundscape of nature and society in the Nordic coastal nations of the 19th and 20th centuries. 

The famous English composer John Nicholson Ireland wrote his late-Romantic clarinet trio between 1912 and 1914 – years during which he stayed on the Channel Islands on several occasions and drew inspiration from their landscape. The Dane Emil Hartmann, too, painted romantic pictures of a Nordic “idyll” in his frequently performed “Serenade” for clarinet, cello and piano. Another work strongly inspired by nature is the Clarinet Trio Op. 15 by the Danish composer Per Nørgård (✝2025), who, with his extensive body of work, ranks among the most significant composers of our time.

Programme

Emil Hartmann (1836–1898): Serenade Op. 24

for clarinet, cello and piano (1878)
Per Nørgård (1932–2025): Clarinet Trio, Op. 15 (1955)
John Ireland (1879–1962) – Clarinet Trio in D minor (1912)
 

Trio Lys
Daniela Engel-Braun (clarinet)

Ema Grčman (cello)

Haike Dietrich (piano)

Duration: approx. 70 minutes without interval