Rhythmic notes from merged strings

The Bangalore School of Music recently brought to the City the ‘Haydn Barytontrio’ from Budapest, who performed a remarkable concert at Alliance Francaise.

With Balázs Kakuk on baryton, József Spengler on viola and András on cello, the trio — which was founded in 1980 — managed to win the hearts of the audience, who appreciated the authenticity and original instrumentation that was presented.

   They used the baryton, a unique bowed string instrument of the 17th and 18th
centuries, and the original manuscripts (music sheets) from the days when these pieces were performed in courts for the royalty.

The evening began with J Haydn’s ‘barytontrio in D-Major, Hob XI/45’, which was gentle but crisp. L Tomasini’s ‘barytontrio in C-Major, Nr 7’ was next, followed by A Neumann’s ‘barytondivertimento, Nr 16’.

Each of the compositions had three movements and the audience eagerly waited to applaud at the end of every piece to show their delight.

The pace kept varying from piece to piece and within each of the pieces itself.

An interesting sight was Balázs’ nod before each composition, which was the only cue needed for the other two to start playing at the exact moment.

There was perfect coordination, which made this unique style of classical music all the more soulful for the listener.

“It was really good and very different from the usual classical concerts I’ve
attended. I was hearing the baryton for the first time
and it was lovely!

The synching was perfect,” shares Sonia Serrao, an audience member. 

The second half started with another Ha­ydn composition, namely ‘ba­rytontrio
in D-Major, Hob XI/106’, after which was the ‘barytondivertimento in D-Major’
by J Burgksteiner and the finale, A Lidl’s ‘barytondivertimento in G-Major, Nr 3’.

The audience, however, did not let them go that easily and called for an encore.

The trio obliged and played a typical Hadyn menuet as well as a piece titled ‘Music for Dreaming’.

“They were pretty good. I’m essentially a fan of bar­o­que, but what they
offered was rather nice to listen to,” says Vijay James, who attended the concert.