Van Baerle Trio: Schubert, Fauré and Martin

Van Baerle Trio

'We inspire each other. It's fun when we spend a few days together,' says Hannes Minnaar about the Van Baerle Trio, which he is the pianist. In 2004, during their studies at the Amsterdam Conservatory, Minnaar, violinist Maria Milstein and cellist Gideon den Herder met each other. The rest is history; the trio named after the Van Baerlestraat sees the Concertgebouw as its musical home.

Schubert, Fauré and Martin

Robert Schumann about Schubert's Piano Trio in B Flat Major: 'One look at this trio, and the misery of our human existence disappears, the whole world is fresh and bright again.' None of Schubert's problems in the penultimate year of his life – poverty, illness – can be heard in this trio. In Fauré's serene Piano Trio in D Minor, also a late composition, the unison passages of violin and cello sound like a dream. The beginning of Frank Martin's trio of Irish folk melodies has an equally hallucinatory effect. The piece ends with a pounding jig.