International String Trio- Saturday May 17th 2025 at 7.30 pm

Description

Mathilde Milwidsky on violin, Kinga Wojdalska on viola and Bartholomew LaFollette on cello are all rising stars in the concert world.

Mathilde was recently appointed Professor of Violin at the Royal College of Music at the age of 29. Kinga was the recent winner of the Primrose international viola competition in the USA. Bartholomew was appointed Professor of Cello at the Yehudi Menuhin School at the age of 26 where he maintained an award-winning class for 10 years. He has played with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Walton and Elgar Cello Concertos in the Barbican Hall, as well as appearing as soloist with the City of London Sinfonia.

Their programme includes Beethoven’s string trio in C minor, three Madrigals by Martinu and a crowd pleaser in The Serenade by Dohnanyi.
Each is a show-stopper.

Mathilde Milwidsky was named a 2023 Classic FM rising star and “One to watch” by Gramophone magazine. Kinga has won numerous prizes in solo and chamber music competitions. Bartholomew won first prize at The Arts Club’s and Decca Records’ inaugural Classical Music Award and first recipient of the Irish Chamber Orchestra’s prestigious Ardán Award.

The programme is an interesting combination of the old and new. The Beethoven String trio in C minor was one of three string trios which he wrote in 1797-9 and comes in four movements. It shows a masterful handling of chamber music and the personality of Beethoven at a time just before he wrote his first symphony. This is followed by three madrigals for violin and viola by Martinu, written in 1947 as he recovered from an accident. Two fast ones and a slow Andante follow the structure of Mozart with lovely instrumentation, and “sprung” rhythms. And “The Serenade” by Dohnanyi is always much liked by audiences.