Acclaimed young ensemble's lunchtime Petworth recital

Current prize winners of the Worshipful Company of Musicians, The Ducasse Trio bring to the Petworth Festival a reputation as a passionate and vibrant young ensemble.

Formed in 2011, the trio consists of musicians from France, Ireland and the UK who began working together after they met at the Paris Conservatoire and Southbank Sinfonia.

Charlotte Maclet – violin; William Duncombe – clarinet; and Fiachra Garvey – piano; make up the numbers.

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“The name comes from Isidore Lucien Ducasse who is a French writer,” explains Charlotte. “He is more famous as the Comte de Lautréamont. For us, it is just a reference to his crazy world and his beautiful world. I gave the book to William from the trio, and he was really shocked. It is quite a shocking book! And it is full of amazing images that seem to go pretty well with our visual world.

“Will and Fiachra knew each other from Paris, and I come from Paris and I met them in London! They had been playing together for a while, and then we decided to get together to play in about 2010 or 2011 because we specially wanted to play the repertoire we were interested in.

“It has been really exciting. We started really as friends just wanting to play together. We just enjoyed it in that way, and we started entering competitions in the same relaxed spirt, but within the past year and a half, things seem to have accelerated for us and to be going really well. We got into the final of YCAT (the Young Classical Artists Trust), and we had Wigmore and now it seems that the trio is the busiest thing that I do. It is quite a special formation we have. It is not like a string quartet.”

The trio has recently held a fundraising concert towards their plans to go into the recording studio for their debut CD. They are needing to find something in the order of £5,000; if things go well, they could be recording in the winter with a view to a CD release next spring.

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For the Petworth Festival, they play Khachaturian – Trio for clarinet, violin and piano;

Poulenc – L’Invitation au Château; Stravinsky – A Soldier’s Tale; and Shostakovich - Five Pieces.

“The Khachaturian and the Shostakovich are masterpieces that we do very often, but we tend to vary things for different audiences. The Poulenc is nice because it brings a bit of lightness. Our concerts could tend to be a bit intense, and then it is lovely to have the Poulenc which is a bit more gentle. This programme has got some great masterpieces, but it is nice also to have something that is a bit more breezy.”

The trio perform for the Petworth Festival on Thursday, July 28, in the Leconfield Hall Petworth. The recital starts at 2pm and ends approx 1pm (no interval).

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Also coming up at the Petworth Festival is The Ferio Saxophone Quartet, Wednesday, July 27 at Champs Hill, Coldwaltham, Pulborough, starting at 7.30pm. The evening features Huw Wiggin – soprano; Ellie McMurray – alto; Jose Bañuls – tenor, and Shevaughan Beere.

All graduates of the Royal College of Music, the quartet were winners of the 2015 Royal Overseas League’s Ensemble Competition and have subsequently won a series of other prizes. They came together in 2012 with the aim of programming a wide variety of musical genres, demonstrating a commitment to breaking new ground and changing preconceptions of the saxophone quartet. They are promising charm, imaginative programming astonishing virtuosity.

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