"It is with great pleasure that I introduce the Pantoum trio, with whom I have shared the stage on several occasions. A trio of great talents, it is now one of the elite chamber ensembles. I'm very proud to see them join the Classeek programme."

A Pantoum is a poetic form of Malaysian origin that arrived in France in the 19th century with the orientalist artistic movement, in which two ideas, one picturesque and descriptive, the other intimate and sentimental, are constantly intertwined. This literary and artistic movement greatly influenced French music at the turn of the 20th century (so much so that the second movement of Ravel's trio, entitled 'Pantoum', is directly inspired by its formal and thematic rules). In 2016, Hugo Meder (violin), Bo-Geun Park (cello) and Virgile Roche (piano) founded the Trio Pantoum while still in their first year at the Paris Conservatoire, and it has since established itself as one of the most promising European chamber music ensembles of its generation.

Rapidly developing an exceptional symbiosis both on and off stage, these brilliant young musicians pursued their shared passion for chamber music, seeking the ideal balance between cohesion and individual expression. They embarked on a thorough study of the chamber music repertoire for strings and piano at the Paris Conservatoire, in the prestigious masterclasses of the Trio Wanderer, Claire Désert and François Salque. Since 2022 Hugo, Bo-Geun and Virgile are Artists in Residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel in Waterloo (Belgium) under the direction of Miguel Da Silva, Corina Belcea and Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden.

Chamber Ensemble

Trio Pantoum 

Trio Pantoum (France) / Ambassador: Miguel da Silva

featuring Anna Egholm, violin; Miguel da Silva, viola; Karolina Errera, viola; and Ari Evan, cello

 is a Malay poetic form and also the title of the second movement of Ravel’s Trio. In homage to this, these three exceptional musicians; Hugo Meder, Bo-Geun Park and Kojiro Okada, have named their own ensemble. This concert will see them presenting two works of Brahms: his 

Originally completed in 1854, at the age of 21 years, Brahms’ 

 is the only work of Brahms to exist today in two published versions. Thirty-six years later, Brahms returned to the work during the summer of 1889 with the intention of trimming its “youthful excesses”. However, he did not formally withdraw the original version from the publishers’:

“With regard to the refurbished trio, I want to add expressly that while it’s true that the old version is bad, I do not claim that the new version is good! What you do now with the old one, whether you melt it down or print it anew, is quite seriously all the same to me.”

It is the revised version that will be performed, but fear not: the sublime lyric melody of the piano that opens the first movement was not tampered with. Brahms also kept the unpredictable spirit of youth demonstrated by the minor-key finale (to a major-key work) in the fourth movement. The main theme in this finale has a Hungarian flair, enticing the audience like Brahms’ was throughout his life. 

 is equally no stranger to this Magyar vitality, with a second movement that recalls the same spirit. Written between 1864 to 1865, this piece is scored for two violins, two violas, and two celli. It is to be played by Anna Egholm, Miguel da Silva, Karolina Errera, and Ari Evan, along with Hugo Meder and Bo-Geun Park. 

Critics were initially sceptical towards this work but it received much praise for its motivic development and colourful soundscapes from Brahms’ friends. Part of this motivic development was prompted by tumultuous romantic developments in the life of Brahms. His passionate relationship with Agathe von Siebold spurred him to immortalise her name by musically spelling it in this work. In German notation, B-natural is H, so the sequence A-G-A-B-E, which appears in the first movement, was developed. While he may be one letter short, his sophisticated contrapuntal and melodic writing fills in the gap. 

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