Nash Ensemble,

Wiltshire Music Centre

By Reg Burnard

Relatively rarely heard compositions are usually that for a reason. And Ignaz Moscheles’s Fantasy, Variations and Finale creep into that category. The Nash Ensemble - Ian Brown piano, Richard Hosford clarinet, Benjamin Nabarro violin and Adrian Brendel cello - played it beautifully. But, I have to admit, despite its dramatic, strident opening, it was getting a little boring.

The Clarinet Trio in B Flat, from Beethoven, who was the idol of Moscheles, restored sanity with its spikey, agile clarinet line, handsomely played by Hosford. He is so undemonstrative, so sure with a soothing, honeyed tone.

The nine variations which comprise the finale were so artistically paced allowing the entire ensemble to shine as soloists. Brown’s piano, the first variation, was a joy to hear and so delicate in touch.

Court Studies, by the contemporary composer Thomas Ades, had a hidden quality that is worth exploring at a second hearing and set the scenario for Brahms’s Clarinet Trio in A minor, written after Brahms, towards the end of his life, had been captivated by the playing of Richard Muhlfeld.

It could, also have been written specifically for Hosford.

He seemed to embrace it with a gentle reverence: Chromatic passages and feathery arpeggios drifted across like hanging clouds; every note precise, tellingly accented, seamlessly welded to Brendel’s cello and with a consistency of tone that never wavered.