Chamber music question - help appreciated

[Bert Coules]

I'm not sure that I'm posting this in the most appropriate section, so if not, my apologies.

I need a piece of chamber music, ideally for string trio, quartet or similar, such as would have been played in an upmarket tea rooms or restaurant in the 1910s. The all-time favourite for this is the minuet from Boccherini's E major quintet and any suggestions for alternatives on the same lines will be very gratefully received. The piece has to be reasonably melodic, preferably leisurely, and moderately unobtrusive.

I realise that inconspicuous background music and a Radio 3 discussion board aren't the most natural of bedfellows, but I would appreciate any thoughts. Unfortunately my knowledge of chamber music is just south of zero and my only real area of musical expertise isn't much help in this instance.

Many thanks.

[vinteuil]

... what about the 'Serenade' attributed to Haydn, by Hofstetter - which used to be ever-present -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jmQ2IXtdTE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk68YyhMME8

Or the Haydn 'Gipsy Rondo' -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNKPIo6TBKY

do you recall the trio of lovely old ladies in the marvellous Alastair Sim film "The Green Man"? they played the 'gipsy' movement of this - they also played an arrangement of 'A Wandering Minstrel I' from Gilbert & Sullivan's Mikado...

[doversoul1]

How about Telemann’s trio sonatas? Telemann wrote many of these works for domestic setting (i.e. not for public concerts) and the combination of the instruments are often left fairly free. Besides all this, they are wonderful music.

[vinteuil]

I share doversoul1's liking for the Telemann, but I wonder if they are the sort of thing tearooms of the Edwardian era would have been playing.

Quite a few possibilities on this CD I think -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00000J7ZB

... and of course the 'Palm Court Trio' repertoire -

http://www.musicroom.com/se/id_no/072365/details.html

[Dave2002]

I'm curious as to what this request relates to. Is it for a live performance, or for background music in a play or other drama? I get the feeling it might be to set a period feel to an event. Vint's suggestions seem to make sense to me, though the Haydn includes a keyboard. I got to thinking Elgar Chanson de Matin or de Nuit, but they in the chamber versions are for violin and piano only - a duo.

Does the music have to be "genuine", i.e. plausible to have been played in the period mentioned, or could any piece with a similar "feel" do? Is the requirement for just one piece, or for a number of pieces to give an extended musical background? Also, context might still be relevant. Some establishments of the period might perhaps have played pieces by composers such as Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn as musical wallpaper if they were attracting a musically knowledgeable audience - or at least an audience which wasn't averse to such high brow music.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... do you recall the trio of lovely old ladies in the marvellous Alastair Sim film "The Green Man"? they played the 'gipsy' movement of this - they also played an arrangement of 'A Wandering Minstrel I' from Gilbert & Sullivan's Mikado...

Exactly what I was thinking when I read Bert's post!

[ahinton]

Quite a few possibilities on this CD I think -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00000J7ZB

... and of course the 'Palm Court Trio' repertoire -

http://www.musicroom.com/se/id_no/072365/details.html

"Palm Court" trios were almost always piano trios rather than string trios. They died out gradually during the last century (there used to be one playing in the foyer of Claridge's at least until the latter 1970s) and the only survivor now is the Pump Room Trio in Bath; it might be worth consulting them, as their music library is as extensive as befits an ensemble that gives at least 450 2-hour performances annually.

[ahinton]

... what about the 'Serenade' attributed to Haydn, by Hofstetter - which used to be ever-present -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jmQ2IXtdTE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jk68YyhMME8

Or the Haydn 'Gipsy Rondo' -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNKPIo6TBKY

do you recall the trio of lovely old ladies in the marvellous Alastair Sim film "The Green Man"? they played the 'gipsy' movement of this - they also played an arrangement of 'A Wandering Minstrel I' from Gilbert & Sullivan's Mikado...

The kind of repertoire that such ensembles played in those days would often have included G&S and other popular light operas of the day and the Viennese light classics; indeed, the Pump Room Trio in Bath (which I mentioned in my previous post) still does include such music in its performances. Chamber arrangements of Chanson de Matin, Chanson de Nuit and other bonbons by Elgar would also feature as well as the lighter works of then contemporary English composers such as Bridge (his Nine Miniatures in particular). Again, though, such ensmbles were usually piano trios rather than string trios.

[vinteuil]

...

do you recall the trio of lovely old ladies in the marvellous Alastair Sim film "The Green Man"? they played the 'gipsy' movement of this - they also played an arrangement of 'A Wandering Minstrel I' from Gilbert & Sullivan's Mikado...

... actually i think I may have misremembered - wasn't it a Brahms Hungarian dance rather than the Haydn Gipsy trio they played??

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTYwq8vtAfs

[Bert Coules]

Thanks so much to everyone for the replies and suggestions. The piece is for recorded background music for one scene at a play reading, which means that it has to very speedily convey a mood before running at a low level below dialogue - hence the need for unobtrusiveness.

Musical authenticity isn't a requirement: the right feel is more important than historical accuracy or artistic excellence.

The Hofstetter/Haydn would be absolutely perfect if it hadn't been used in around half of the Carry On movies and thus brings some comic baggage with it, though perhaps I'm worrying unnecessarily about that. I like the idea of G&S.

Thanks again; I'm off to do some listening.

[french frank]

Anyone notice that the Gypsy Rondo was played by the Florestans - in its entirety - on Breakfast yesterday? Quelle coincidence!

[Dave2002]

Thanks so much to everyone for the replies and suggestions. The piece is for recorded background music for one scene at a play reading, which means that it has to very speedily convey a mood before running at a low level below dialogue - hence the need for unobtrusiveness.

Does the play take place within a hotel?

Not a mystery thriller, by any chance!

What mood is to be evoked?

[Bert Coules]

Does the play take place within a hotel?

Just this one scene.

Not a mystery thriller, by any chance!

No, though one character does meet an unfortunate end.

What mood is to be evoked?

Quiet refinement and elegance. There's a good deal of other music in the piece, most of it loud, rumbunctious and borderline vulgar: what's needed for this scene is a marked contrast.

The Hoffstetter/Haydn is still the front runner, echoes of Sid James and Babs Windsor notwithstanding...

[vinteuil]

... on R3 just now, a string quartet version of The Blue Danube - might work?

[Bert Coules]

Many thanks to everyone for the varied suggestions. In the end, I first decided to go with the Hoffstetter/Haydn (and to the devil with Carry On associations) and then, just before the performance, made the decision to cut the music altogether. Ah, the vicissitudes of show business.