An Attractive Sound-world

MIKE WHEELER listens to
the Thorne Trio

Woodwind trios are not that common, but the combination of oboe, clarinet and bassoon creates an attractive sound-world, as the Thorne Trio (Ilid Jones, Esther Sheridan and Alexandra Callanan, respectively) demonstrated (Derby Chamber Music, Multi-Faith Centre, Derby University, Derby, UK, 3 February 2017).

Inevitably, transcriptions make up much of the repertoire. Callanan's own version of Handel's Arrival of the Queen of Sheba was a bubbly curtain-raiser, and the players made it a real conversation-piece as they gave way to one another in turn. A transcription of Corelli's Trio Sonata in C Op 4 No 1 by the semi-anonymous 'D Blyth' was particularly effective in pointing up the third movement's pungent dissonances...