Harrogate International Festivals’ Sunday series runs from January to April on an approximately monthly basis in the spacious ballroom of the Old Swan Hotel. This second concert in the series featured two major talents in trumpeter Matilda Lloyd and the Goldmund Quartet. Pretty obviously works for trumpet and string quartet are thin on the ground, so the programme consisted largely of transcriptions (the trumpet taking the violin, piano or vocal part) and extracts from larger works. This might have been seen as a disadvantage, but Lloyd’s virtuosity and the flexibility of the string quartet soon allayed any fears.
Furthermore the musicians are inspired programme builders and based their music around the places where the music might have been first heard. This worked particularly well with the 18th century salon of Marianna von Martines who took keyboard lessons from Joseph Haydn who occupied a top floor apartment in the building where she lived. After an introductory concerto by Bach after Vivaldi, two pieces by Haydn followed – a String Quartet and last two movements of his Trumpet Concerto – before the first half ended with a premiere performance of an extract from a chamber cantata by Von Martines herself.
The Bach concerto highlighted Lloyd’s agility as a trumpeter, sailing through the complex lines for violin with the trumpet’s bright crisp tone adding an extra dimension to the music – some outstanding accompaniment for cello, too. Haydn’s Trumpet Concerto was written for the newly invented valve trumpet and Lloyd’s artistry was again in evidence, presenting the recurring main theme of the last movement virtually unadorned. It was a pity, however, that the decision was taken to omit the first movement.
In between it was the quartet’s turn to shine, with a mostly joyful account of Haydn’s String Quartet, Opus 33, No. 2, nicknamed “The Joke”. The final musical joke comes at the end of the fourth movement and provoked genuine laughter, but the tongue is halfway to the cheek in all the movements except the third, right from the stop-start opening onwards. The Goldmund Quartet brought out the humour of the piece and gave the rather odd Largo a suitably solemn air.
Marianna van Martines is no undiscovered musical genius, but her aria from La Tempesta deserved to be revived, the quartet driving the music on as Lloyd negotiated the soprano’s ornaments and embellishments.
The second half began with the ingenious sandwiching of a Faure song between two pieces by Pauline Viardot, the connection being that Faure regularly attended Viardot’s salons. The connection worked perfectly, Lloyd and the quartet displaying Parisian wit and sentiment to go with extremely stylish interpretations.
The final stage jumped from early 18th century Vienna to 1920s New York, but gave a final opportunity for both quartet and Lloyd to show their range of accomplishments. The Goldmund began with the sombre majesty of the slow movement of Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” quartet. As the tone thinned in the final variation, the movement ended in a few broken notes as the sound faded away. The only really solemn piece in the programme led to George Gershwin’s Three Preludes, Lloyd tightly muted in assorted blues-and-Brazilian based pieces that occasionally hinted at the music of Porgy and Bess years later. Then all that was left was the encore, Gershwin’s lovely melody, “Someone to Watch Over Me”, with delicate trumpet wrapped in an elaborate string accompaniment.
Reviewed on 8 February 2026
The Reviews Hub Star Rating
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9
