Sala: Pittville Pump Room, Cheltenham

The Gould Piano Trio's Cheltenham Music Festival matinee proves the restorative power of chamber music in this spa venue of Regency refinement. 

Boris Giltburg was one of the must-see performers of this year’s Cheltenham Music Festival, having won the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition for pianists back in June. The hall at the Pittville Pump Room was packed full of anticipation for this renowned pianist.

The sun is out and the musical migration has begun. Many metropolis music venues decide practically to shut up shop for the summer, and the concert junkie needs to uproot and search out top classical music at one of the summer festivals that spring up seasonally.

The concert opened with BBC newsreader Julia Somerville, summarising news from the year 1915 at an old-fashioned broadcasting desk complete with microphone. It was informative, and set the scene for this recital, one in a series of ‘time capsule’ concerts, solely featuring music composed in 1915 – including two of Debussy’s last chamber pieces.

This Cheltenham Festival concert featured three British string quartets by Hugh Wood, Michael Nyman and Giles Swayne. Swayne and Wood were both present at the concert and gave an introductory talk providing context for their works. Swayne said in the talk that ‘music should be unpredictable to keep the listener interested’.

To perform so many of Debussy’s works in one sitting requires a certain amount of skill and understanding. The charismatic pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet opened our eyes to the impressionistic world of Claude Debussy in this special three-part concert for the Cheltenham Music Festival.