The energy of the FIC audience was fuel for the Paddington Trio

Guanajuato, Gto., Our job as musicians is that, wherever it is, we have to make it work, even if we don’t play in a concert hall; It can be a beautiful church and that changes our perception of the space and how we project our sound, although it is not easy. Still, we enjoyed it a lot. What makes each concert special is the audience and the energy it provides.the members of the Paddington Trio stated in an interview during their visit to the 52nd International Cervantino Festival (FIC).

Their debut as an ensemble in 2020 was at the huge Paddington train station in London, famous for the cute character of a bear and for being one of the oldest in the city. However, it is an unusual forum for a classical music concert. When they made their first presentation in this hectic place they had no name, so the American pianist Stephanie Tang, the Finnish violinist Tuulia Hero and the Irish cellist Patrick Moriarty chose it to mark their career. The three of us made London our home.

A small baroque church from the 17th century was the site where they offered a concert in Guanajauato, in the Templo del Señor Santiago Apóstol, in the Marfil neighborhood, about six kilometers from the center. An abandoned place, after arduous recovery work, functions during the festival as a forum to receive ancient and contemporary music ensembles. Last Saturday, the Paddington Trio surprised with a change in a couple of the pieces they performed.

They started with the trio Gypsy, by Joseph Haydn, based on Hungarian folk music, with a lot of humor; They followed with one of the most famous trios of romanticism composed by Felix Mendelssohn in D minor, instead of Johannes Brahms, as announced. After an intermission, they continued with Freakshow, by Irishman Sam Perkins, which was released in 2016 on the occasion of the centenary of the Irish independence movement. He created miniatures honoring many people. It’s a great piece to introduce audiences to contemporary music, which is sometimes very difficult to do. But this work is so vivid in its descriptions that anyone can hear and understand. We really love to touch itMoriarty described about his compatriot’s work.

The concert ended with a piece, probably the one we play the most. It’s a trio by Dmitri Shostakovich. We started working on it during confinement and it means a lot to us. This program represents us as a trio.

During the concert, standing on one side of the church pews, an older man watched, absorbed, during the last song the trio performed. At the end, he turned to his wife and daughters, sitting on one side, to state very excitedly: this was difficult.

For the members of Paddington, the energy of the public is what works as fuel, especially the wonderful that they obtained in Guanajuato, they said during a few minutes of conversation before leaving for San Miguel de Allende, for another of their presentations. In Irapuato they offered their third concert, which was their first visit to Mexico from the United Kingdom.

Remarkably happy, very friendly and lively, the three musicians under 30 say they have enjoyed Mexico City, especially the tacos, the National Museum of Anthropology and the Casa Azul, in Coyoacán, where Frida Kahlo lived.

The Paddington Trio is classified as one of the most exciting chamber ensembles of its generation, recognized in international competitions and live performances for its fresh interpretations and exuberant energy.

When asked if it is difficult to introduce young people to contemporary music, they respond: “In our experience, we think that the pieces we play, for example Freakshow, It is what resonates the most with young people, because it is very tangible, written in 2016. There are another couple that we perform that were composed in the past 10 years. The young people who go to our concerts say that they are the ones they like the most, even if they don’t know classical music.

“Like a boy of about eight years old who went to a concert at the beginning of the year and told us: ‘¡Freakshow, freakshow!’”