Wednesday 29th July 2026, 7.30pm
presents a unique musical event, hosted by The Mission House Studio, Finsbay in its
beautiful surroundings, starting at 7.30pm. The Gould Piano Trio is perhaps the UK’s leading piano trio; the ensemble is joined by virtuoso soloist Robert Plane (clarinet). The purpose of their visit to Harris is to give what may be the first performance ever in the Western Isles of Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, undoubtedly the most-loved chamber work to be written since 1900.
Its first performance, before 4000 War Prisoners in a freezing German camp in Silesia in 1941, is part of musical history; it was so cold that the composer, at the piano, had to wear mittens.
Olivier Messiaen saw individual sounds as colours, and his composition reflects the hallucinatory halo of the Aurora Borealis in the Northern sky.
We want to capture some of that experimental spirit here, by bringing the “Quatuor pour la fin du temps” to our own northern climes in an intimate chamber atmosphere.
Come and join us for a concert that will also present Beethoven’s Trio op.11 and The Rising of Sirius, a work that Gould Trio commissioned from Piers Hellawell to mark St Wilfrid’s 1350th anniversary in 2025 as part of theirtouring programme around the UK.
Wine and soft drinks will be available for a donation.
Robert Battey, Washington Post
The piano trio literature, distinctive among small genres, comes to us in two guises. Since the piano, violin and cello are the three most popular solo instruments, works for this combination invariably attract random groupings of big-name soloists who enjoy the camaraderie and lower-stress engagements.
But the literature is of sufficient size to sustain an entire career, like the string quartet, and so many full-time groups are out there as well. Thus, there’s an equal chance that the Brahms trio you hear on the radio today is being played by star soloists or by a group you’ve never heard of.
I’d never heard of the British-based Gould Piano Trio, which played Sunday at the Phillips Collection, although it has a fairly large discography. But this group demonstrated, phrase by phrase, what is missing when this music is played by soloists who rehearse a few times together. Pianist Benjamin Frith, violinist Lucy Gould and cellist Alice Neary have high-level professional credentials, including occasional solo engagements with orchestras. But what they produce, after playing for 20 years together, is simply extraordinary.
The only comparison that comes to mind is the old Beaux Arts Trio; the combination of jeweler-like precision and a musical fire that ignites from the first bar……………….
Though three musical personalities come through, the melding of the minds (and fingers) is on a plane one rarely hears today……….
Celebrity groups cannot equal the musical excitement generated by first-class players building up an interpretation through years of exacting study and performance, however memorable this or that solo passage may be. This was the most satisfying concert I’ve heard all season.
Battey is a freelance writer.
"The only comparison that comes to mind is the old Beaux Arts Trio; the combination of jeweler-like precision and a musical fire that ignites from the first bar"
The Washington Post"
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Thankyou
Robert Plane and the Gould Piano Trio have been giving concerts, recording and touring together for thirty years.
They were initially brought together in performances of Messiaen’s monumental Quartet for the End of Time, a work of extraordinary power, luminous beauty and spiritual enrichment. They’ve given countless performances over the years, particularly in 2008, the centenary of Messiaen’s birth, when they also made their CD recording for Chandos, hailed by BBC Music Magazine as the ‘finest modern recording’ of this epic masterpiece, and garnering acclaim across the press.
“An admirably well judged, scrupulously expressive performance” Gramophone
“Its performance here is exemplary” Album of the Week,
‘Plane’s clarinet has an eloquent and expressive voice. He can be clownish, rude, barracking and sneering; he can weep, simper and smarm; he can joke, cackle and cheer. He can also produce whispered tone from nothing, bite the air with a chisel edge, roar low down like a didgeridoo or soar with the pure white sound of a cathedral treble.’
The Times
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