Gould Piano Trio

piano trio

Thursday 17th October, 2024

7.30pm Morpeth Methodist Church

Programme (on occasion, the artists may make minor changes to the published programme)

Hummel Piano Trio No 1 in E flat major Op. 12

Eben Piano Trio

INTERVAL

Tchaikovsky Piano Trio in A minor Op. 50 In memory of a great artist

The Gould Piano Trio, Lucy Gould, Richard Lester and Benjamin Frith, have been making music together for a quarter of a century.  They tour internationally, are frequent recording artists and commission new work from contemporary composers as well as acting as artistic  directors for the Corbridge Chamber Music Festival with clarinettist Robert Plane. 

The Goulds' programme for Morpeth is characteristically diverse, opening with a trio by Hummel - a pupil of Mozart, contrasting with a trio by twentieth century Czech composer Eben.   Tchaikovsky;'s only piano trio comprises the whole of the second half.  This Romantic, tragic work in A minor was written to commemorate the death of pianist Nikolai Rubinstein.  We can look forward to an outstanding start to our 79th season. 

'The only comparison that comes to mind is the old Beaux Arts Trio; the combination of jeweler-like precision and a musical fire that ignites from the first bar … though three musical personalities come through, the melding of the minds (and fingers) is on a plane one rarely hears today … This was the most satisfying concert I’ve heard all season.” Washington Post

More about the trio:

The Gould Piano Trio has been compared in the Washington Post to the great Beaux Arts Trio for their “musical fire” and “dedication to the genre” and has remained at the forefront of the international chamber music scene for over a quarter of a century.

Launched by winning first prize at the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, they were European Concert Halls Organisation “Rising Stars”, making a highly successful debut at New York’s Weill Recital Hall, described by Strad Magazine as “Pure Gould”. Their many appearances at London’s Wigmore Hall have included the complete piano trios of Dvořák, Mendelssohn and Schubert, and they returned to this iconic venue to present a Beethoven Cycle in the 2022-2023 season.

The trio’s passionate belief in the importance of developing new repertoire has resulted in commissioning works from many contemporary composers. Commissions from Sir James MacMillan and Mark Simpson saw premieres at the Bath International Festival and the PRS New Music Biennale in Hull, City of Culture, 2017. Their most recent commission, John Casken’s Lust of Roots, was premiered at the 2022 Buxton Festival, and at their Cheltenham Festival appearance the same year they performed the RPS commission, ilk, by Andrew Chen.

They also maintain a lively relationship with promising young chamber players by giving masterclasses worldwide, particularly in association with the Guildhall School in London and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff.

Together with clarinettist Robert Plane, the trio are artistic directors of the Corbridge Chamber Music Festival in Northumberland which celebrated its 21st anniversary with a much-acclaimed new commission from Huw Watkins for clarinet and piano trio entitled Four Fables. The most recent edition of the festival promoted the music of Piers Hellawell and Pamela Harrison, alongside more familiar masterpieces.

Tours of N. America, the Far East, Europe and New Zealand have been interspersed by adventurous recording projects, including releases on Naxos, Chandos, Somm, Resonus, NMC and Champs Hill. In addition to their highly praised recordings of the standard works, the trio have thrown light on long neglected gems from late romantic British repertoire, such as trios by C.V. Stanford and John Ireland, plus fascinating works by Bax, Milford, York Bowen and Cyril Scott. More recent additions include John Casken’s piano trio and a disc of works by Charles Ives, Rebecca Clarke and Amy Beach.

The first volume of their Schubert Piano Trio cycle, in which these sublime masterpieces are juxtaposed with skilful arrangements (by Carl Zellner and Brian Newbould) of the composer’s dances, was released on the Resonus Classics label in 2021. The Goulds’ performance of Leokadiya Kashperova’s Piano Trio, recorded live at the Edinburgh International Festival the same year, was selected for the festival’s chamber music highlights disc on the Linn label, and featured on Radio 3’s Composer of the Week.

The album of chamber music by Pamela Harrison from the Gould Piano and Robert Plane, curated by Robert Plane, was released by Resonus Classics in early 2023, and was featured as one of Gramophone Magazine’s “best new classical albums this week”. The Goulds have now embarked on their next major recording project, the seven Heinrich Marschner Piano Trios and two Piano Quartets, and look forward to returning to the studio in April 2024 for the second album in this series for Naxos.