World premiere and everyone is smiling

The Corbridge Chamber Music Festival began tonight, hence my very late posting. It is the musical highlight of our year.

The first concert was the Brahms Piano Trio no 1 in B, op8, followed by the world premier of Piano Trio No 2 "Eidfjord" by Simon Rowland-Jones and concluded with Dvorak's Piano Quarter in Eflat, Op 87.

Here you see Simon Rowland-Jones and the Gould piano trio enjoying the applause. Simon introduced his piece and the Goulds played extracts to illustrate what he said. Then we heard it. He was inspired by "a dazzlingly clear day, (when) I became aware of a pure clean breeze that blew down from the mountains across the fjord, and I knew that this was where my work would begin."

Simon is a viola player and was the first violist with the Chilingirian string quartet back in the 70s. I heard them then and must have heard him.

He played viola in the Dvorak tonight.

What a great night. We were at the reception for friends of the festival afterwards.

PS I used this image because it shows some of the happy audience, reflected in the high polish of the piano.