Classical Summer Concert: Jonas Lyskjær Frølund, Jonathan Swensen, Elias Holm - Clarinet Trios by Brahms, Fauré and Sørensen

In 1890, Johannes Brahms was 57 years old and believed himself to be creatively exhausted as a composer. But then he heard the clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld perform, and the experience was so profound that his desire to compose returned. Already the following year, he wrote his trio for clarinet, cello, and piano.

Bent Sørensen’s Schattenlinie tells a very different story. The work was not originally conceived for clarinet, viola, and piano, but evolved into this form from a single movement - the present third. Here, the composer plays with the idea of a “shadow line” in the music, which the three musicians continuously move toward. The title arose when Sørensen saw an art installation with the same name in a church ruin in Hanover: a drawn shadow line.

The French composer Gabriel Fauré also never wrote a trio for clarinet, cello, and piano, but the violin part in his Piano Trio in D minor lends itself perfectly to the expressive qualities of the clarinet. Here it is performed by Jonas Frølund, who himself studied at the Paris Conservatoire, where Fauré served as director for several years. Frølund is joined by star cellist Jonathan Swensen and the fast-rising young pianist Elias Holm—a dream team for the clarinet trio repertoire.