Trio con Brio
The Danish ensemble Trio con Brio will be kicking off its current six-city United States tour Tuesday in Salt Lake City. This will be the second time the young piano trio has been to Utah, both times as part of the Chamber Music Society of Salt Lake City.
This time around the group will be playing Joseph Haydn’s Trio in G, “Gypsy;” Maurice Ravel’s Trio in A minor; and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s Trio in A minor.
In an email to Reichel Recommends, Jens Elvekjær, the group’s pianist, wrote that he and his colleagues, sisters Soo-Kyung Hong and Soo-Jin Hong, take a lot of things into consideration when they program a concert. “Works that have some kind of relation often go well together, like here the folkloristic elements. Sometimes though extremes also work surprisingly well. Mostly you know only after the concert.”
There are many aspects about Ravel’s sole piano trio that Elvekjær admires. It’s a great work in his opinion because of “Ravel’s ability to orchestrate and create colors from the tiniest pianissimo to big orchestral waves of sound. Also the folkloristic elements from where Ravel grew up as a child in France near the Basque country make the trio a special composition.”
Tchaikovsky didn’t write too much chamber music but what he did write are gems, according to Elvekjær. And the trio is a “musical journey….The Slavic emotions, melodies and the virtuoso writing for all three instruments makes it a real challenge both musically and instrumentally. The (lengthy variation movement) is also a display of Tchaikovsky’s sense of coloring.”
Unlike the other two composers on the program, Haydn wrote a considerable number of piano trios during his long creative life, and the “Gypsy” is a perfect way to start the concert. “It fits the program very well,” Elvekjær wrote.
This is the first of seven concerts the Chamber Music Society will present in its 2011-12 season. Below is a listing of the schedule. All concerts start at 7:30 p.m. and take place in Libby Gardner Concert Hall on the University of Utah campus. (Click on the following link to read a related story by Becky Durham for 15 Bytes magazine about the members of the Chamber Music Society: http://artistsofutah.org/15bytes/11oct/page5.html .)
Oct. 18 – Trio con Brio
Oct. 31 – Talich Quartet
Nov. 17 – Doric Quartet
Jan. 18, 2012 – Pacifica Quartet
Feb. 22, 2012 – Fauré Piano Quartet
March 28 – Modigliani Quartet
April 24, 2012 – Pavel Haas Quartet
CONCERT INFO:
What: Trio con Brio
Venue: Libby Gardner Concert Hall
Time and Date: 7:30 p.m. Oct. 18
Tickets: $125 general, $25 students (season); $25 general, $5 students (individual), at the door
Phone: 801-561-3999
Web: www.cmsofslc.org
ALSO: Master Class with Trio con Brio, Dumke Recital Hall, David Gardner Hall, 1 p.m., Oct. 18, free and open to the public.