Trio Apaches

The Pharos Arts Foundation presents the Cyprus debut concert of recently-formed Trio Apaches, comprising three of the UK’s most respected soloists. The Trio was established in 2012 as the consequence of a shared desire to focus on innovative projects and challenging cross-genre collaborations, as well as to present masterworks of the trio repertoire in unfamiliar contexts. Very much representative of the group’s intention to create projects outside the traditional realm of the piano trio, Trio Apaches’ concert in Nicosia, on Friday 14 November at The Shoe Factory, will feature a newly commissioned transcription of Debussy’s La Mer by the Royal Philharmonic Society Award winner, composer Sally Beamish. The concert will also include John Ireland’s Piano Trio No.2 as well as Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio in A minor.

PROGRAMME:

John Ireland (1879-1962)
Piano Trio No. 2 in E major in one Movement (1917) Cyprus Premiere

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Piano Trio in A minor, Op.50 “In Memory of a Great Artist” (1882)

Interval

Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
La Mer (1905)
Arranged for Piano Trio by Sally Beamish (b.1956) Cyprus Premiere

Debussy’s La Mer (The Sea) is a unique mix of tone poem and symphony, a three-movement impression of the ocean. The composer sketched the work in 1903, and in 1905 travelled to Eastbourne, a town on the English Channel, to complete the piece at the seaside. His purpose, as he later wrote to his stepson, was to depict the ocean’s constant mutability in ways that the painters in his Impressionist milieu could not. "Music," he wrote, "has this over painting: it can bring together all manner of variations of colour and light."

The initial idea to commission Sally Beamish to transcribe a trio version of La Mer emerged from speculative discussion that took place during a car journey at the 2012 Lincolnshire International Chamber Music Festival, very shortly after violinist Matthew Trusler, cellist Thomas Carroll and pianist Ashley Wass officially decided to form Trio Apaches. Initially nervous at first, when they first broached the idea with Sally Beamish – surely the notion of arranging a piece so famous for its orchestral colour would be quite risky – but with a little work, they persuaded her to take the plunge. Beamish managed to create something that has taken a life of its own; one that both complements the original score and also communicates entirely independently of it. The world premiere took place at LICMF 2013 on August 16th. The audience reaction proved what the Trio already knew: That they had struck gold with this particular combination of piece and arranger. Since then they have performed it numerous times and they are utterly convinced it will become a staple part of the trio repertoire.

John Ireland’s Piano Trio No.2 exemplifies an antiwar streak in Ireland's thinking. A work rarely performed outside Britain, the one movement trio presents a grim landscape and the composer himself left no doubt that he tried to convey the terrible wastage of World War I which destroyed so many young men at the very springtime of their lives. The entire work is permeated with polyphonic writing that has at once an implacable quality and a feeling of anger

On March 23, 1881 in Paris, Nikolai Rubinstein, one of Russia’s foremost pianists and pedagogues, died. Ever since Tchaikovsky had arrived in Moscow from his studies in St. Petersburg fifteen years before, Rubinstein had been his most important professional and personal mentor. His death moved Tchaikovsky deeply, and he determined to create a work in memory of him, something with a prominent piano part in honour of Rubinstein’s instrument. He settled on a commemorative piano trio, and began work on the score in December during a stay in Rome.

TRIO APACHES

French A-pash [noun]
1. ruffian or hooligan
2. the name adopted by a group of ‘artistic outcasts’, including Ravel and Stravinsky,
in the early 1900s

Matthew Trusler / violin
Thomas Carroll / cello
Ashley Wass / piano

Trio Apaches, comprising three of the UK’s most respected soloists, was formed in 2012 as the consequence of a shared desire to focus on innovative projects and challenging cross-genre collaborations, as well as to present masterworks of the trio repertoire in unfamiliar contexts.

Built on a foundation of great friendship between three colleagues who have collaborated in various forms over many years, Trio Apaches have quickly been embraced on the international concert scene and are unanimously praised for the infectious joy and virtuosity of their performances and the innovative nature of their programmes. They have made numerous appearances on BBC Radio 3, most recently in a live BBC lunchtime concert from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in a recital juxtaposing Copland with Tchaikovsky.

Very much representative of the group’s intention to create projects outside the traditional realm of the piano trio, Trio Apaches have already released their debut album, which features a newly commissioned transcription of Debussy’s La Mer by Sally Beamish alongside one of Beamish’s original works.

Matthew Trusler has developed a reputation as one of Britain’s leading violinists. Performing on a bow once owned by Heifetz, Trusler has been invited to perform as a recitalist and concerto soloist throughout Europe, Australia, the USA, Japan and South Africa. In the UK he has performed with major orchestras, including the BBC orchestras, the Philharmonia, London Philharmonic, City of Birmingham, Halle and Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and has appeared further afield with the Minnesota Orchestra, NDR Hanover, Helsinki Philharmonic, Deutsche Symphony Berlin, Dusseldorf Symphony Orchestra, Flanders Symphony Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic, Australian Chamber
Orchestra and Johannesburg Philharmonic. Alongside his concerto performances, he has collaborated with outstanding musicians for chamber work, including Piotr Anderszewski, Lang Lang, Wayne Marshall, Martin Roscoe, Peter Donohoe, Imogen Cooper, Leonidas Kavakos, Lynn Harrell, and Joseph Silverstein. Matthew has performed recitals in leading venues around the world including Wigmore Hall in London, the Auditorium du Louvre in Paris, and the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels. Matthew Trusler is the founder and Artistic Director of Orchid Classics, a label that has attracted some of the most important artists of today, and is also the founder of the Lenny Trusler Children’s Foundation, raising money for desperately ill babies. Matthew currently holds a teaching post at the Malmö Academy in Sweden.

Described by The Strad as a player of ‘authority, passion with an unerring sense of direction, full of colour and underpinned by a clear musical intelligence’, Welsh cellist Thomas Carroll launched his career when he won both Young Concert Artists Trust and Young Concert Artists, New York, performing in many major venues across Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and America. He has appeared as concerto soloist with the London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Orchestras and London Philharmonic as well as orchestras such as the Vienna Chamber, Melbourne Symphony and Bayerischer Rundfunk. Much in demand as a chamber musician, Thomas has worked with the Belcea Quartet, Endellion Quartet, Yehudi Menuhin, Gidon Kremer, Mischa Maisky, Michael Collins, at Wigmore Hall, the Edinburgh and Cheltenham International Festivals, among many others. His recordings include Michael Berkeley’s String Quintet with the Chilingirian Quartet for Chandos and a critically acclaimed recital disc with pianist, Llyr Willliams on Orchid Classics (ORC100016). Recent engagements include concerts at the Louvre in Paris, Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Dubrovnik Festival, Mecklenburg Festival and The International Chamber Music Festival in Utrecht. Thomas is also in demand as a conductor, and was recently appointed Chief Conductor of the Orpheus Sinfonia. Thomas is currently a Professor at the Royal College of Music in London and the Yehudi Menuhin School.

Ashley Wass is firmly established as one of the leading performers of his generation. Described by Gramophone Magazine as a ‘thoroughbred who possesses the enviable gift to turn almost anything he plays into pure gold’, he is the only British winner of the London International Piano Competition, prize-winner at the Leeds Piano Competition, and a former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist. Increasingly in demand on the international stage, he has performed as soloist with numerous leading ensembles, including all of the BBC orchestras, the Philharmonia, Orchestre National de Lille, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, RLPO, and under the baton of conductors such as Simon Rattle and Osmo Vanska. Ashley is also much in demand as a chamber musician, performing regularly at many of the major European festivals, and at the Marlboro Music Festival, playing chamber music with musicians such as Mitsuko Uchida, Richard Goode and members of the Guarneri Quartet and Beaux Arts Trio. He has performed at many of the world’s finest venues including Wigmore Hall, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, the Vienna Konzerthaus and Carnegie Hall in New York. Ashley Wass is the Artistic Director of the Lincolnshire International Chamber Music Festival. The Festival has grown from strength to strength during his tenure, with sold-out performances of challenging repertoire and broadcasts on BBC Radio 3. Ashley is currently a Professor of Piano at the Royal College of Music, London, and is an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music.

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)