Sarah Urwin Jones Journalist, Writer, Broadcaster

Taking its inspiration from the intimate, sociable gatherings of musicians who premiered and played Schubert’s music in his short lifetime, the third UK annual Schubertiad in Perth (next stop, the Highlands) might have been a little less cosy than those that Schubert led — 700 is hardly your average drawing-room capacity, even among the most moneyed of 19th-century patrons — but its wonderfully resonant concert hall and familiar line-up of quality soloists underlined that this was a weekend of music worth travelling for.

The director Svend Brown aims for loose authenticity, putting together the attractively odd couple of Schubert’s late Piano Sonata in C minor (D958) and his somewhat earlier Piano Quintet in A (Op. 114 D667), otherwise known as The Trout.

Llyr Wiliams’s superb piano was the cog around which these two divergent sound worlds revolved. Schubert’s late piano sonata hints at Beethoven, but is all idiosyncratic Schubert. Williams expressively suggests a tonal journey of vast proportions within the first few minutes, his sensitive playing strident then thoughtful, ruminative then disturbed. His touch is superb, opening the adagio with loving intimacy, a safe haven before the darker theme intrudes with moments of quiet ecstasy. Williams finds the unity in this most expressively nebulous sonata by allowing it freedom, a series of fruitful meanders brought together in small climaxes that build to a satisfying whole.

With the violinist Alexander Janiczek, the second half was a Trout Quintet as light and entrancing as a stream twinkling in the morning sun. Sometimes one wished for more individual strings definition in this polished, agile performance, but there was a quiet energy that, bookended by an excellent Williams and the deep resonance of Enno Senft’s bass, underlined the satisfying tonal dynamic of this most popular of piano quintets.

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