(SW 1034)
With this opus, the composer presents us a piano trio in the rather rare instrumentation with wind instruments. The violin, violoncello and piano instrumentation usually used in this genre is here clarinet, bassoon and piano. We know from Brahms, for example, that one of the two usual strings is replaced by a wind instrument, such as the violin being replaced by the clarinet in its clarinet trio, or the violoncello in its horn trio being replaced by a horn. In the present work by Ridil, the piano is accompanied by two woodwind instruments instead of violin and cello.
As can already be seen from the title of the work, it is formally a classic cycle of variations. The theme here is a dance song from Hungary that no less a person than Béla Bartók had published as a folk song researcher in his collection For Children. In the following 6 variations, this topic is explored and reassembled with a lot of musical wit and great allusion according to all the rules of art, whereby the 6th variation is builds a crowning final fugue, in the course of which the fugue theme is counterpointed with the actual main theme. The resulting complex polyphonic interweaving almost reaches Reger’s dimensions, but everything seems to be very light-footed and cheerful, almost dance-like.
Martin Schmeck