The festival opens with Transfigurations, a programme exploring transformation and reinvention. Donnacha Dennehy’s Bulb (commissioned by the Fidelio Trio with funds provided by the Arts Council of Ireland) brings a distinctly contemporary Irish voice to the programme.

The shifting textures and energy of Dennehy’s work is set against Ravel’s exquisite Ma mère l’oye (Mother Goose Suite), heard in an arrangement for piano trio. The trio then present a new work titled To the Edge by Northern Irish composer Frank Lyons, before the evening culminates in Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht (Transfigured Night).

Composed in 1899, Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht was misunderstood and rejected at its premiere in 1902. It has since become his most popular work and is now widely performed. Inspired by a poem by Richard Dehmel, the work is written as one large-scale movement, with contrasting sections closely interwoven and the mood of the poem reflected throughout.

The Fidelio Trio perform Eduard Steuermann’s arrangement for piano trio, made in 1932 for a private performance. Born in 1892 in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now part of Ukraine, Steuermann was a close associate of Schoenberg, having studied composition with him and performed the piano part in the first performance of Pierrot Lunaire. His arrangement of Verklärte Nacht is notable for its transparency and clarity, bringing out the detail of the music while retaining its expressive eloquence and colour

With Darragh Morgan, Tim Gill and Mary Dullea, the Fidelio Trio bring together works separated by more than a century, revealing unexpected connections between the music of Ravel, Dennehy, Lyons and Schoenberg.

Donnacha Dennehy, Bulb

Maurice Ravel, Ma mère l'oye (Mother Goose Suite) arr Benjamin Martin

Frank Lyons, To the Edge

Schoenberg, Verklärte Nacht arr Steuermann 

Fidelio Trio

Darragh Morgan, Violin

Tim Gill, Cello 

Mary Dullea, Piano

Tickets €25/€20 (conc.) available here.

The festival moves into the beautiful surroundings of the National Botanic Gardens for a free lunchtime performance of Steve Reich’s Different Trains.

To celebrate renowned composer in the year of his 90th birthday we will hear one of his most celebrated works. Different Trains draws on the composer’s childhood memories of travelling by train across America during the Second World War, juxtaposed with the very different experience of European Jews travelling by train to concentration camps. Recorded speech, train sounds and a tightly woven string texture combine to create a work that is at once deeply personal and historically resonant.

The Fidelio Trio are joined by Elizabeth Cooney and Fiona Bonds for this powerful exploration of history and memories.

Steve Reich, Different Trains

Darragh Morgan & Elizabeth Cooney, Violins

Fiona Bonds, Viola

Tim Gill, Cello

Tickets available here.

At 6.30pm, a film screening of ‘Rêves Des Jeux Mécaniques’ offers a cinematic encounter with the imaginative world of music. Produced by OnJam TV, the film features a performance with animation of Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Cello performed by Darragh Morgan and Tim Gill.

The concert performance will begin promptly afterwards at 7.30pm and brings together a programme in a concert titled ‘Teachers and Students’. Ravel’s Piano Trio opens the programme, followed by a previous Winter Chamber Music Festival commission; The Owl by Irish composer Deirdre McKay. The Fidelio Trio will be joined by acclaimed London tenor Mark Padmore for McKay’s The Owl, followed by a performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ On Wenlock Edge.

Drawing on poetry by A. E. Housman, this remarkable work moves between nostalgia and the enduring power of the natural landscape. The evening concludes with Fauré’s Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, a work of extraordinary invention. With Mark Padmore, Elizabeth Cooney and Fiona Bonds joining the Fidelio Trio, the concert brings together an exceptional group of performers.

Maurice Ravel, Piano Trio in A minor

Deirdre McKay, The Owl

Ralph Vaughan Williams, On Wenlock Edge

Gabriel Faure, Piano Quartet No.1 in C Minor Op.15

Fidelio Trio

Mark Padmore, Tenor

Elizabeth Cooney, Violin

Fiona Bonds, Viola

Tickets €25/€20 (conc.) available here.

The festival closes with Twilight in Vienna, a programme that brings together the elegance and intimacy of Viennese chamber music with a striking contemporary perspective.

Beethoven’s Eyeglass Duo and Schubert’s early String Trio in B-flat major lead into Λήδρα – Ledra by leading Cypriot composer and Eastman Professor Evis Sammoutis, receiving its world premiere. The new work offers a contemporary voice within a programme rooted in the chamber music traditions of Vienna.

The festival concludes with one of Schubert’s late great chamber works, the Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat major. With its expansive lyricism and extraordinary melodic invention, it provides a fitting close to a weekend of exceptional chamber music.

Beethoven, Duet mit zwei obligaten Augengläsern, WoO 32, Eyeglass Duo in Eb

Schubert, String Trio in Bb D.471

Evis Sammoutis, Λήδρα – Ledra (World premiere)

Schubert, Piano Trio No 1 in Bb Major D.898

Fidelio Trio

Fiona Bonds, Viola

Tickets €25/€20 (conc.) available here.