Pianist Kathryn Selby’s ever expanding universe of musical friends has a new member for her latest Song Without Words tour in Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s Principal Cello Catherine Hewgill, who joins her SSO colleague Associate Concertmaster Alexandra Osborne for what turns out to be a trio made in heaven.

The program gets its name from an ABC-commissioned 2020 work by Adelaide composer Anne Cawrse which pays tribute to the Mendelssohn siblings Felix and Fanny, an “unashamedly melodic and lyrical” three-part piece modelled on one each of their chamber works.

Songs without Words: Catherine Hewgill, Alexandra Osborne snd Kathryn Selby. Photo supplied

Starting with rippling arpeggios over a cello solo, Ornamental sets the scene for the early Romantic style to follow, what Cawrse describes as “Historically Informed Composition”. The central section, Lied, sounds as if it has come fresh from Leipzig, the strings combining beautifully under Selby’s sparkling piano, while there’s a contemplative and more modern feel – but not too modern! – to the final part, Swan Song.

The work, which has been recorded by the Benaud Trio, deserves to be heard more, and the faithful Selby & Friends audience can count themselves lucky that it is given an airing by these three excellent musicians.

Another rarely heard gem is Frédéric Chopin’s youthful Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 10, which he wrote when he was 18. It’s a genre he never revisited, and it has to be said that his writing for strings leaves something to be desired. That said, the piano, being the unashamed star, has plenty of brilliant and beautiful moments in the four-movement work.

Selby performed this work back in 2005 when the Macquarie Trio was about to transition to Trioz and later to Selby & Friends.

She has also taken the last work, Franz Schubert’s final Trio No. 2 in E-flat major – his only chamber work to be publicly performed in his lifetime – on several memorable outings with various friends. This performance, with Hewgill’s wonderful handling of the compelling march-like theme of the second movement a highlight, is certainly one to relish.

Kathryn Selby and Friends performs Songs without Words at Elder Hall, University of Adelaide on 21 September (2.30pm).