Following their critically acclaimed debut recording, the Eblana String Trio presents a fascinating programme of works by William Alwyn, Gordon Jacob and J.B. McEwen.

In October 2017, the trio were lucky enough to give a concert as part of the William Alwyn Festival. The concert took place in the atmospheric setting of Holy Trinity Church, Blythburgh, a place steeped in musical history as well as the final resting place of William Alwyn. On the programme that day were two string trios by William Alwyn; the celebrated trio from 1959 as well as a previously unknown Phantasy Trio from 1928. This earlier work was a revelation to them, not only showing the various stylistic influences that Alwyn was absorbing at this early stage, but also providing the starting point for a compositional journey that would lead him to the harmonic innovations of the 1959 trio. It was after this concert that the idea for a recording of Alwyn’s works for string trio was born, with the addition of the newly reconstructed Movement for String Trio (1939) only strengthening the case.

These three works by Alwyn, each one highly distinctive and representing a different stage in his career, gave the performers the cornerstone of the album. Their challenge then was to find other pieces that could both complement and inform them. As they already had two unpublished works on the programme, they were inspired to investigate the Six Pericula (Experiments) by Alwyn’s teacher John Blackwood McEwen. These pieces were known to the trio already from lists of McEwen’s works, but it would take the musical detective work of cellist Peggy Nolan to locate the manuscript in Glasgow University Library and produce a useable edition them to work from. Having expected to find a suite of six short pieces they were surprised to discover six substantial trios in their own right. They eventually chose the fifth of the set, the enigmatically titled “Attica” (a Leaf-Fringed Legend), with its highly original sound-world.

To complete the album, the Eblana String Trio settled on a relatively unknown gem of the string trio repertoire, the Six Shakespearean Sketches by Gordon Jacob. There are several parallels between William Alwyn and Gordon Jacob, contemporaries who would have moved in similar professional circles and both contributed their distinctly unique voices to the landscape of twentieth-century British music.