Leonore Piano Trio, Orchestra Nova, George Vass – Watkins: Chamber Music and Works for String Orchestra (2024)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 01:11:25 minutes | 2,50 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Resonus Classics
Widely recognised as the leading Welsh composer of his generation, Huw Watkins is an increasingly prolific writer of works for chamber ensembles, alongside his distinguished career as a pianist. Composed between 2009 and 2022, the five works featured on this disc take the listener on a fascinating journey through Watkins’s recent musical evolution. The acclaimed Leonore Piano Trio begin with the earliest of these works – the 2009 Piano Trio No. 1 – whilst conductor George Vass’s Orchestra Nova brings us the Little Symphony for strings and exquisite Concertino for violin and strings, performed here by trio violinist Benjamin Nabarro.
The trio is joined by violist Rachel Roberts for Watkins’ luminous Piano Quartet, while the programme concludes with the 2022 Piano Trio No. 2 – written for the fortieth anniversary of the Presteigne Festival and premiered there by the Leonore Piano Trio.
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Leonore Piano Trio – Taneyev & Rimsky-Korsakov: Piano Trios (2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:17:56 minutes | 1,31 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Hyperion Records
Rimsky-Korsakov described Taneyev’s best music as possessing ‘a wealth of beauty and expressiveness’, a verdict with which no one is likely to disagree after hearing the piano trio recorded here. Rimsky was (unjustly) disparaging towards his own, unfinished, trio, which emerges as a brooding, substantial work well worthy of revival.
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Leonore Piano Trio – Pixis: Piano Trios (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:04:54 minutes | 1,21 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Hyperion Records
The Leonore Piano Trio revivifies three works by a figure already—and unfairly—consigned to the musical footnotes of history before he died, and yet whose music is bound to charm in such persuasive performances as these.
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Leonore Piano Trio – Litolff: Piano Trios Nos 1 & 2 (2020)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:10:00 minutes | 1,22 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Hyperion Records
If the name of Henry Charles Litolff is familiar today only through the scherzo of his Concerto symphonique No 4, the absurdity of that ‘one-hit composer’ tag is clearly demonstrated by this release. These are among the finest examples of the piano trio genre still inexplicably absent from the standard repertoire.
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Leonore Piano Trio – Arensky: Piano Trios (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 01:13:01 minutes | 1,27 GB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Hyperion Records
Arensky’s Piano Trios represent a fine example of the Russian romantic piano trio, a form ‘invented’ by Tchaikovsky, Arensky’s close friend and influence. Piano Trio No 1 is the more popular of the two, dedicated to the cellist Karl Davidoff. Davidoff is regarded as the founder of the Russian school of cello-playing, and Arensky’s dedication accounts for the fact that the cello plays such a prominent role, having most of the principal themes and often seeming to eclipse the violin in importance. Piano Trio No 2 is one composer’s last works, and marks a considerable advance in Arensky’s compositional techniques.
Hyperion is delighted to present the Leonore Piano Trio (Tim Horton, Benjamin Nabarro and Gemma Rosefield, who features as soloist on Hyperion’s Romantic Cello Concerto series Volume 3: Stanford Cello Concertos) in its debut recording.
Composer: Anton Arensky, Sergei Rachmaninov
Orchestra/Ensemble: Leonore Piano Trio