24 February 2024
Concert Programme
Franz Joseph Haydn: Piano Trio No.34 in B flat major, Hob. XV:20Heinrich
Marschner: Piano Trio No.6 in C minor, Op.148
Interval
Bedřich Smetana: Piano Trio in G Minor, Op.15
Marschner: Piano Trio No.6 in C minor, Op.148
Interval
Bedřich Smetana: Piano Trio in G Minor, Op.15
Gould Piano 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 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 give 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.
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 give 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.
Lucy Gould - Violin
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Lucy studied at the Royal Academy of Music and Indiana University, Bloomington, with Gyorgy Pauk and Josef Gingold. Courses at Prussia Cove, Yale Summer School and the Banff Centre for the Arts, working with Andras Schiff, Menahem Pressler and the Amadeus String Quartet were a great inspiration to her.
In chamber music she is best known as violinist of the Gould Piano Trio, one of the UK’s most prestigious ensembles. From early success at the Charles Hennen in Holland and the inaugural Melbourne Competitions and shortlisted for the Royal Philharmonic Society Chamber Award, the Trio now boast an impressive discography, with festival appearances at Edinburgh, Cheltenham, City of London, Bath, Aldeburgh, Spoleto and the BBC Proms. Regular and extensive tours to the United States have covered major venues in New York, including the Lincoln Center, Frick Collection and Weill Hall, and in Europe highlights have included the Queen’s Hall Edinburgh, Amsterdam Concertgebouw and the Brussels Palais des Beaux Arts, as well as recitals in Paris, Cologne, Athens and Vienna, and regular performances at London’s Wigmore Hall. |
Benjamin Frith - Piano
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Life student of Dame Fanny Waterman, Benjamin Frith won the Dudley National Concerto Competition at age fourteen, performing Saint-Saens 2nd Piano Concerto, subsequently making his recital debut at the Harrogate International Festival. His many awards culminated in joint top prize at the Busoni International Piano Competition in Bolzano, then in 1989, the Gold Medal at the Artur Rubinstein Piano Master’s Competition, where he was also awarded the special prize for Chamber Music.
Many engagements with world renowned orchestras followed, such as IPO (Mehta), Warsaw Philharmonic (Atzmon) and later the Halle under John Wilson and Sir Mark Elder and recital tours from India, Kazakhstan, Israel and Egypt to the Far East and North America. He soon made recording contracts with ASV, then with Naxos, for whom he made a best-selling John Field Concerto Cycle with the Royal Northern Sinfonia. His solo recording of Schumann’s highly personal Davidsbundler op. 6 received the top recommendation on Radio Three’s programme, “Building a Library”. |
Richard Lester - Cello
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Leading chamber-musician, solo-cellist, orchestral principal and renowned teacher, Richard Lester was a member of the award-winning Florestan Trio, a founder-member of the ensemble Domus and has been a member of Hausmusik and the London Haydn Quartet. Equally at home on both period instruments and ‘modern’, he was for many years principal with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. He has been principal cello with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe since 1989.
He has performed concertos under conductors such as Sandor Vegh, Claudio Abbado, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Paavo Berglund, Myung Whun Chung and Sir Roger Norrington and has also appeared as director and soloist with COE, OAE, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Aurora Orchestra, Irish Chamber Orchestra, and Les Violons du Roy. |
