Erato Piano Trio

The Pharos Arts Foundation presents the exciting Erato Piano Trio, considered amongst the UK’s leading young ensembles and praised for their virtuosity, outstanding musicianship and stylistic versatility alike. For their first concert in Cyprus, on Wednesday 17 February at The Shoe Factory / 8:30pm, the Trio will perform piano trios by Haydn, Schnittke and Brahms

ERATO PIANO TRIO

“…stylistic versatility, virtuosity, attention to intimate detail, quest for beauty of sound and immaculate sense of balance…” Westmoreland Gazette (2015)

The Erato Piano Trio is rapidly establishing a reputation as one of the UK’s leading young ensembles, praised for their virtuosity, outstanding musicianship and stylistic versatility alike. Formed at the Royal College of Music in 2005, the Erato Piano Trio made an immediate impression and were soon invited to perform across the UK and abroad where, in the same season, they gave highly successful debut performances at the Martinu Hall in Prague as well as at Zurich’s famous Tonhalle, performing Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time alongside the distinguished Spanish clarinetist Joan Enric Lluna. They were selected onto the Concordia Foundation Young Artists Scheme in 2008 and subsequently performed a series of recitals at prestigious London venues including St. Martin in the Fields.

The three musicians comprising the Erato Piano Trio are highly esteemed soloists pursuing international careers. Violinist Yuri Kalnits was described by reviewers as “an interpreter of the highest order” and was awarded the prestigious Diapason d’Or award for his recording of Weinberg’s Violin Sonatas; cellist Julia Morneweg is the recipient of an EMI Music Foundation Award and made her London concerto debut in 2006 in Elgar’s Concerto at St John's Smith Square; pianist Jose Menor made his international debut at age fifteen, performing at Carnegie Hall as the First Prize winner of the World Piano Competition, and has gained an international reputation with numerous important engagements ever since.

As First Prize winners of the Anglo-Czech Trust Competition, they currently pursue a busy concert schedule around the UK and Europe. The Trio’s repertoire extends from the classical works of Haydn, Hummel and Mozart over the Romantic masterpieces to 20th century music by Schnittke, Avner Dorman, Cecilia McDowall, Garrett Shatzer, and Mark-Anthony Turnage. Their interpretation of the Piano Trio by Alfred Schnittke was received enthusiastically by audiences and critics alike and led to an invitation by the late Professor Alexander Ivashkin, Schnittke’s close friend and biographer, to perform the work at the Centre for Russian Music in London. The Trio was selected by “Making Music's Concert Promoters' Network” as featured artists for 2012/13. Highlights have included their South Bank debut at the Purcell Room as well as an extensive tour to which saw the Trio perform in major concert halls in Shanghai, Hangzhou and Xiamen amongst other cities. Forthcoming highlights include their much anticipated debut at St David's Hall in Cardiff.

The Trio’s strong commitment to contemporary music recently led them to launch a much acclaimed project with the composition faculty of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, as well as giving several UK and world premieres of pieces written especially for the Erato Piano Trio. Two of these, David Braid's Music for Dancers and his Sonata for Quartet (with clarinetist Peter Cigleris), have been released by Toccata Classics. Since 2013, the Trio have also been presenting their own concert series at the 1901 Arts Club in London, where they programme a mixture of trio and other chamber repertoire.

PROGRAMME

Haydn: Piano Trio in C major, Hob.XV:27
Schnittke: Piano Trio
Brahms: Piano Trio No. 2 in C major, Op.87

The first of a set of three trios dedicated to the talented pianist Therese Jansen, Haydn’s highly virtuosic Piano Trio in C major Hob XV:27 was published in London in 1797, after the composer had returned to Vienna. Schnittke’s intensely poignant Piano Trio was arranged in 1992 from his String Trio of 1985. The arrangement carries a personal note, dedicated to Schnittke's doctor, Alexander Potapov, who twice saved the composer's life from near-fatal strokes. Written in 1882 when Brahms was forty-nine, the Piano Trio No. 2 in C major, Op.87 is a mature work coming after the piano quartets, the piano quintet, the string sextets and all three string quartets. The work might effectively be regarded as Brahms’s first unequivocal masterpiece for the piano trio, unequivocal to Brahms himself, one of the most notorious and unrelenting self-critics in all of classical music history.

Tickets: €15 / €10 Concessions & members of the Pharos Arts Foundation, Box Office: Directly from the Foundation’s website www.pharosartsfoundation.org/Tickets_online.htm or Tel. 9666-9003 (Monday - Friday 10:00am-3:00pm)