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Trios From Our Homelands

The lincoln trio

The Lincoln Trio is renowned for creating “worthwhile programs of serious classical music that are wholly winning and simply delightful” (ClassicsToday.com). For its newest Cedille Records album, “the brilliant Chicago-based Lincoln Trio” (WRTI-FM, Philadelphia) of violinist Desirée Ruhstrat, cellist David Cunliffe, and pianist Marta Aznavoorian has crafted a highly personal program of inventive 20th-century piano trios by composers from the individual players’ ancestral homelands of Switzerland, England, and Armenia, respectively.

A one-of-a-kind album, Trios From Our Homelands offers stellar performances of substantial works that many listeners will be discovering for the first time. The 1922 Piano Trio by England’s Rebecca Clarke brims with attractive melodies presented with virtuosity and musical ingenuity. Armenia’s Arno Babajanian, whom Mstislav Rostropovich called “a brilliant composer,” is represented by his passionate Piano Trio in F-Sharp Minor from 1952. Swiss composer Frank Martin wrote his tuneful Trio on Popular Irish Melodies, the best-known work on the album, in 1925.

The Lincoln Trio made its full-length Cedille album debut with Notable Women, featuring works by Lera Auerbach, Stacy Garrop, Jennifer Higdon, Laura Elise Schwendinger, Augusta Read Thomas, and Joan Tower. Gramophone said, “The performances by the Lincoln Trio are models of vibrancy and control. The notables on this recording could hardly have better champions.” The Strad praised the ensemble’s “interpretative flair” and “supreme clarity of expression.” Cedille’s Turina: Chamber Music for Strings and Piano is an album on which “sensitive and polished readings by the Lincoln Trio and assisting musicians reveal what is best about this neglected repertory” (Chicago Tribune). The group also performed on the Grammy-nominated Naxos recording of James Whitbourn’s Annelies.

 

Album works

Trio for violin, violoncello, and piano, Rebecca Clarke
I. Moderato ma appassionato
II. Andante molto semplice
III. Allegro vigoroso
Piano Trio in F-Sharp Minor, Arno Babajanian
I. Largo
II. Andante
III. Allegro Vivace
Trio sur des mélodies populaires irlandaises, Frank Martin
I. Allegro moderato
II. Adagio
III. Gigue

Label: Cedille Records
Release date: August 12, 2016

 

Album Reviews

“This is one of those recordings that gives you the sense of continuing to peel back layers and finding something new at each one . . . The players approach this music with freshness and technical aplomb. A highly enjoyable release of music from the 20th century mainstream.”

James manheim, allmusic

 

“This is among the most irresistible chamber releases in aeons, and one that’s had me quietly whooping with delight . . . I love this disc. You will too.”

Graham rickson, the arts desk

 

10/10 “. . . a splendid concert of three excellent 20th-century chamber works . . . and the Lincoln Trio simply plays the bejesus out of it. Intelligently assembled programs like this one are all too rare, but the Lincoln Trio shows us that they are possible, and set a standard that other groups would do well to emulate.”

David Hurwitz, Classics today

 

“Fervent and imaginative . . . [“Trios From Our Homelands”] features three relatively little-known piano trios from the 20th century that deserve better acquaintance – and that get fine, fiery readings from these musicians.”

Joshua kosman, san francisco chronicle

 

“The Lincoln Trio gives shapely and impassioned performances of these three unfamiliar 20th-century chamber works.”

fiona maddocks, the observer