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FRANCESCA Barritt, violin, Morwenna Del Mar, cello and Yshani Perinpanayagam, piano, make up the Del Mar Trio, who got the 2014-2015 season off to an exciting start.

Beethoven’s Trio Opus 1 No 1 already showed how well ahead of his time this composer had become. The jaunty opening and cheeky coda bookended a first movement full of vitality. The wistful slow movement with a newly liberated cello operating on equal terms with the violin and piano was followed by a quirky irregular scherzo and a headlong staccato-like finale.

Rebecca Clarke’s Piano Trio, composed in 1921, provided an arresting and substantial work. Tempestuous and passionate at times, with a recurring motif yet encompassing calmer and sorrowful passages, this piece held the attention throughout. The dedicated approach of the players was never in doubt.

After the interval Schubert’s Trio No 1 proved a real tonic. Delightfully exuberant, the opening movement was full of songful melodies, the andante nostalgically beautiful, the scherzo effervescent with a contrastingly soulful trio and the rondo finale buoyant and bouncy and played with obvious affection.

The audience responded with great enthusiasm to a very generous, well played and balanced concert.

The next concert of Chipping Sodbury Music Society’s 67th Season, in the Town Hall at 7.30 pm on Tuesday 11 November 2014, will be given by the Emergence Sextet - a new group on the London scene. They will perform two major works: the Brahms String Sextet in Bb op.18 and the Schubert String Quintet D.956.

By Gerry Philp