MILVERTON Church was well filled on Friday evening for an appearance by the prestigious London Bridge Trio, comprising Daniel Tong (piano), David Adams (violin) and Kate Gould (‘cello).

The programme was firmly rooted in the classical and romantic genre, we heard Beethoven, Schumann and Mendelssohn, represented by three towering works. With Beethoven’s Opus 1 Trio in E Flat we knew from the off that we were in for a good evening’s music making.

The playing was spritely and crisply articulated and sound was gloriously full and mellow, beautifully balanced.

The trio exhibited a tight rapport, both in the first movement and the lyrical second.

The Milverton piano is a powerful, modern concert grand, but Daniel produced a crisp, silvery tone perfectly suited to the music.

The third movement is unmistakeably Beethoven, with quirky shifts in tonality played with great panache.

The last movement calls for great virtuosity in the piano part, matched by furiously scurrying violin passages – again the ensemble sound was tight and coherent, even in the most ferocious bars.

Schumann next, his Trio No. 2 in F, Opus 80. We heard an urgent, declamatory opening, again with a rich sound. The slow movement is song-like and the longing in the theme was communicated beautifully.

The third movement wasn’t the expected fast scherzo, more a lilting piece a hint of the ländler about it.

Similarly instead of a showy, fast last movement Schumann marked it ‘not too fast’ and we heard a forthright, optimistic theme played with great sonority and energy.

After the interval we heard Mendelssohn’s 1845 Trio in C Minor - full of energy, stormy and restless from the outset.

Mendelssohn is famous for his solo piano pieces entitled Songs Without Words and the beautifully slow movement of this trio is like that. The Scherzo is fiendishly difficult but the playing was superb.

A confident ‘cello opening to the last movement led to a bold, section from all three instruments, before we reached the core of this movement.

This is based on a Lutheran chorale, first played on the piano then taken up by the strings. David’s violin tone in this was absolutely ravishing.

We heard a final triumphant re-statement of the chorale in C Major – such was the solidity of the sound it was very hard to believe that we were listening to only three players!

I loved this concert and it was yet again a tribute to Milverton Concert Society’s determination (and success) in bringing performers of the highest calibre to play for us.

The applause was long and very well-deserved.

Milverton Concert Society are to be praised for what they do and the best way to acknowledge this is to come to their concerts and bring as many friends along as possible.

Review by Harold W. Mead