March / April 2024 Issue
Feature Article by Jacqueline Kharouf
Renaissance of the Piano Trio:
An Interview with Misha Keylin of Hermitage Piano Trio
While pianist Ilya Kazantsev, cellist Sergey Antonov, and violinist Misha Keylin are soloists and performers in their own right, they are each also dedicated members of the Hermitage Piano Trio, a chamber ensemble known for its high-level of musicianship, cohesive sound, and dedication to the piano trio repertoire. They have performed throughout the U.S. and North America, appearing at music festivals and chamber music performances in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Washington, DC, as well as Boston, New Orleans, and San Miguel de Allende (in Mexico), among other places.
The day before the trio planned to drive to Montreal for another concert series, I spoke with violinist Misha Keylin by phone. I asked him about the trio’s latest album, Spanish Impressions (the second album of a recording deal that the trio has with Reference Recordings), his work in collaboration with his trio partners, and the lost art of piano trio performance. The following interview has been edited from a transcription of our conversation.
To begin, I wanted to first ask about the name of the trio. Where does the name Hermitage Piano Trio come from? Or how did you all decide on this name for the trio?
“Hermitage” is a French word that means “where a hermit lives.” We’re not hermits, but we kind of liked the name and it has a little bit of a symbolic meaning related to where we came from. All of us are originally from Russia, with Sergey Antonov and Ilya Kazantsev from Moscow and me from St. Petersburg before we came to live and become citizens of the United States. And also—something else that is cool about the name—we found out that Andrew Jackson’s house near Nashville, TN is called The Hermitage, and that there’s a wine region in France called Hermitage. So, we just thought, why not have some great international appeal?
The reason why we’re using the word “Piano” in the name of our group, not just Hermitage Trio, is because there was a Hermitage String Trio that existed for a number of years in Europe. Again, they were a string trio, we’re a piano trio, so we wanted not to have any confusion, even though I don’t believe they perform anymore.
How long have you been together as a group?
The trio has existed now for 13 years. And of course I’m including the COVID years, which unfortunately affected everybody. We spent 13 months not being on stage due to COVID. But we did some things for video; we had a couple of concerts that we pre-recorded that were shown. So yeah, we’ve been around 13 years and we remember our first concert very well at the Polish consulate in New York, where we performed works of Haydn, Rachmaninoff, and Brahms. It’s hard to imagine, but time does fly [laughs].
I’m quite in love with the sound of this album, not only in terms of the repertoire, but the actual sound quality as well. The album notes mention that this recording was made at Skywalker Sound, and so I particularly wanted to ask you about the experience of recording there. Capturing the highest sound quality seems especially important for retaining the variety of touches on the instruments, from pizzicato and staccato to the very quiet and very fast-paced notes. Were those specific aspects of the sound part of the reason for making the recording at Skywalker Sound?
We’re thrilled to be working with Reference Recordings because the number one thing about anything that the label puts out is the sound, and, of course, the quality of playing, whether it be jazz musicians or classical musicians. For Reference, it’s always been about capturing the natural sound. What really impresses us, especially now that we’ve done two albums with Reference Recordings, is that the engineers try to do as little as possible to influence the sound—from the moment it is actually captured on tape (I still call it tape, but now it’s hard drive) to the moment where it is actually presented on the final CD or media. They try to avoid changing the reverb; they try to avoid making adjustments to our balance. Some sound engineers mess around and make level adjustments, but Reference Recordings really wants to capture the pure sound.
Reference Recordings has had previous experience working with other musicians at the wonderful Skywalker Studios facility, so they know the surroundings. Now, when we talk about a studio, you may think of a garage studio in the backyard or a tiny room somewhere in a building, but this is a studio which is the size of a football field. Two full orchestras can actually fit in there. And, of course, a lot of the music for films has been done there. They have this incredible ability to change the sound environment, like the ambience of the reverb, with just a push of a button. It’s all there. Once we walked in there, and saw it with our own eyes, and played a couple of notes, we knew it was going to be great. In any of our future albums, we would have no problem recording there. They also have an amazing Blüthner piano, which Ilya loved and used in our recording. We trusted Reference because of its past work history there. We knew that this was not going to be one of those, “Don’t worry how it sounds to you on the playback —you won’t recognize the product at the end.” We spent quite a bit of time setting up the sound, knowing that what we’re hearing then is pretty much what we’re going to hear on the final version. So, really, Skywalker was chosen because the record company knew this place. It did take us a couple of hours to adjust fully as a trio because suddenly you’re playing in a very large “empty” area. And when you’re recording, depending how the microphones are set up, you may not be sitting as close to each other as you do during a natural concert. But soon thereafter, we felt really right at home and, wow, it’s a beautiful place. As I said, we’re glad to have recorded there, and we’re happy to continue our relationship recording there.
I think it really did come across that the recording didn’t sound altered. Like you said, I didn’t hear a lot of reverb, or things like that. It’s a very clean, natural-sounding recording.
Absolutely. And that’s what we kind of strive for, because it is an art form to capture a performance onto a media form. It’s a very different experience for a listener to hear a performance in a concert hall versus to listen to a recording of it. As a performer, when you are in an environment where there’s no audience, where you can have one, two, three takes—it’s not a one-shot deal—you have to really learn how to pace yourself, as every take should be like a concert performance. And at the same time again, Marina and Victor Ledin, who were the producers of this album and of course producers of our first album Rachmaninoff, which garnered three Grammy Award nominations, really know their stuff (they have worked in that venue many times before), and were extremely helpful and important for guiding us through the recording process. There is a good reason why they have been nominated for 13 Grammy awards. And Jacqueline, it’s really great that you felt, upon hearing the album, what was perceived to be a non-amplified, more natural environment.
I really also love the kind of triplicate symmetry to the album: three players playing three movements of trios by four different Spanish composers. Each of the composers, like each of the members of Hermitage Piano Trio, was a solo performer in his own right, who lived and worked at about the same time, the early 20th century. As a trio, how did you decide to focus so specifically on these composers and this set of music from this particular time and place?
Well, we had tremendous success from our first disc, Rachmaninoff, working with Reference. They were so sweet and kind to ask us, “What would you like to work on together with the Ledins? What would you like to do?” And although we all felt so passionate about Rachmaninoff and his music, we wanted to make sure that a second album wouldn’t be something Russian. There’s nothing wrong with Russian music, there are many wonderful Russian pieces, but as I said, with the name Hermitage we want to be known for a wide range of repertoire. We talked about different composers and we kept coming back to Spain because we wanted something that had a little bit of flamboyance. We were lucky enough to come across the piano trio of Cassadó about seven years ago. A lot of groups do not even know the existence of it. Cassadó was known as a very fine cellist after Casals, but he also wrote this momentous trio and we just fell in love with it. Any time we’ve played it anywhere, whether in a big concert series or a small series, people were saying, “Wow, I didn’t know such a piece existed.” So then, we started to talk about expanding our Spanish repertoire. Right before COVID hit, we really wanted to explore what was out there around the time of the Cassadó trio, which was written in the 1920s. Of course, during this period there’s plenty of French music—Ravel and other Impressionists—but we wanted to dig a bit deeper into Spanish music. Then we came across Turina, who is a well-known Spanish composer, and that kind of took over our interests even more. Here we were trying to put together repertoire, not knowing that COVID was about to hit, and then we started to think about what else we could put on the album. We knew that Turina had three works for piano trio, but we didn’t want to make an album that had more than a single work by the same composer. After further exploration, we came across these beautiful dances by Arbós. Wow, what an accomplished career he had—working with fantastic composers like Albéniz, conducting major orchestras, being a respected solo violinist, and having his own Trío Arbós. Of course the Ledins were helping us with research on all these composers. We decided to implement Arbós, but we needed one more composition. The cool thing is that the Ledins have access to incredible amounts of archival repertoire, meaning the actual music parts, and they must have sent us about 15 different proposed compositions. Some of them were good enough, but when you make a CD it’s basically your business card for the next 30 years. So you don’t want to record something which is kind of okay, or something that just fills in the time. This is something that a lot of effort goes into from all sides.
We didn’t finalize the repertoire choices until we came across a performance of the Tres Impresiones by Perelló. And then we were saying, “Yes, we like this. We really like this.” So the Ledins said, “Well, we have some good and bad news. The good news is we’re happy you really like something; the bad news is it’s very hard to find the music parts, but we’re going to try to look very hard for it.” The works were published in the early 20th century, but they have been long out of print. About two weeks after they started contacting their worldwide sources to see if anybody had these three beautiful movements, COVID hit. To make a long story short, they were able to track down where each individual movement was. As you can see in the CD booklet notes, they were in three different European countries. But then, the problem was that the libraries were shut down. Nobody could go in there and photocopy the music. It took us literally two years from the moment that we loved the piece actually to get the music parts. So that answers the history of how we came up with this album.
And why do we love this music? For starters, we think that it has such a colorful and passionate temperament. There’s the nostalgic delicate sadness of Turina, who was influenced by people like Albéniz, Manuel de Falla, and of course Ravel, Debussy, and César Franck. You can hear music that is passionate and Romantic, but sprinkled with a little bit of pepper and spices. The second movement really stands out, with the two stringed instruments playing a rapid tremolo against the strong dance character in the piano. Now the Cassadó trio is a kind of in-your-face Spanish drama, which often almost reminds me of a matador fighting with a bull at a corrida, but when you least expect it, you get folkloric melodies appearing from all sides. It’s just so dramatic! Yet he too associated with and was influenced by some of the same personalities as Turina. And then you have those beautiful three dances by Arbós, which really signify the style of Spanish culture, their golden period before the outbreak of World War II. And finally, of course, you have Perelló, who is the least well known of the composers, but he wrote a set of three beautiful dances that are completely different in writing style than those of Arbós. Perelló dedicated them to his two partners in the Trio Barcelona. After hearing the style of Perelló’s writing, we wish he had written more works of chamber music.
We just love Spanish music. It’s the culture, the music, the people, the history, and so on. All four composers are interconnected through their relationships with each other, but yet the styles are a little bit different, so you get a variety of flavors: the south of Spain versus the middle of Spain, with a little bit of France in there as well.
One of the things that we were adamant about was that whatever that we recorded, we did not want to do any transcriptions on this album. So these are all original works for piano trio. You can take a lot of famous Spanish music, like paso dobles, have somebody transcribe it, and then suddenly you have an album of “The Best of Spain.” We didn’t want to do that. We wanted to really bring back a couple of lost treasures like the Arbós and the Perelló, and revisit the Cassadó and the beautiful Turina, which of course have been recorded by others.
I love a good research story, actually. It’s interesting how long it took to get the music and I’m really glad that it worked out. You mentioned your love of Spain, the culture, and the people. Would you ever consider touring there?
We would love to! The trio has established itself in North America quite well, and we would love to now expand our horizons to Europe. This music is something special for the people of Spain, and sadly they’re probably not even aware that they have these two wonderful composers like Arbós and Perelló besides the more established Cassadó and Turina. Certainly, another reason we would love to go there is the cuisine. Spanish food is one of the most delicious cuisines, and has so many varieties based on each region. And the wine isn’t so bad either! I actually have performed quite a bit in Spain on my own, as I was one of the winners of the Sarasate competition (in Pamplona) many years ago. And besides that, I probably have performed in about 30 cities all across Spain. I’ve taken my family on trips there and it’s an amazing country to visit. The only problem is when you have to play concerts you can’t enjoy yourself as much as a tourist.
Still, not a bad place to be.
Not at all. Not at all.
I was interested to read more about each of the members of Hermitage Piano Trio. It is quite amazing that each of you has maintained both a solo career and a career as a trio member. I wonder if you could speak about your own personal choice to work this way—is it part of a need to maintain a certain flexibility as a performer, and as a way to sustain a career as a musician? Or is it linked more to the variety of repertoire available in chamber music that does not necessarily cross over with solo repertoire?
We’re very clear on this: We hope not to offend anybody, but the fact remains that there are very many fine string quartets out there nowadays, playing all over the world. But for us, the piano trio has kind of become a lost art form. Of course, you had the legendary Beaux Arts Trio. And you had the trio of Isaac Stern, Eugene Istomin, and Leonard Rose that was known to perform regularly. But now the piano trio has become something like a “pick-up” thing to do—let’s just throw three pretty strong players together and it’s now a piano trio. But in reality, this will not work if you want to do it at the highest level, which it should be. Nothing personal against string quartets, but why isn’t the piano trio being heard more often in chamber music concerts? Now of course, we have a little bit of a disadvantage in logistics when you have a piano trio—you need a good piano instrument. And when you are performing in a concert series, for example, you don’t always have the ability to give a concert with a good piano. So some presenters and series are unable to do it as often as possible because it takes more funding to get a piano in, get a piano onstage, make sure it’s a good piano, tune it, and things like that. But a string quartet literally can sit down and play a concert on the street corner, at a McDonald’s, at a great concert hall, or at somebody’s home.
And by not having more elite piano trios out there, we really feel that audiences miss out on so much great music repertoire. There is such a vast number of beautiful pieces that were written by the most famous composers. It starts with Haydn, then you go up to Shostakovich, and in between this, you have Schumann, Brahms, Dvořák, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Arensky, and so on. (And I haven’t even mentioned the much more contemporary composers.) Most all of the major composers wrote piano trios. Another big and important difference for a piano trio compared to a string quartet is that in the string quartet, the first violin is the “leader,” and you have the supporting second violin with viola and cello taking turns in different roles. With the piano trio, however, everybody has to be on the top level: the cellist, the violinist, and the pianist. You need to be able to play and, shall we say, lead and defend your position at all times. This is something that is not easy to find, but we have been lucky enough to have the right combination, because Sergey and I have a very similar and matching approach, by which I mean the way we do the bow strokes, the vibrato, the intonation, and other expressive things. It was right there from the start. And then you involve the pianist. Now the pianist of course can dominate any chamber music composition. But Ilya, with his experience of doing a lot of collaborations of chamber music, not only understands but loves and enjoys the supporting role when it is needed and also the dominating role when it is required. And that is probably the hardest thing to find—the balance of all three musicians being able to play at the highest possible technical level yet having the same musical approach and the ability to (musically) sacrifice for and support each other. And that to me, I would say, is the most important thing. When we get feedback from the audience or critics, and if they say something like “They played as one,” that to us is the highest compliment. We’ve been very lucky that we spend very little time arguing about musical interpretations during rehearsals, and that is a good sign of us being on the same track.
When you said “sacrifice,” I didn’t think of it as a negative thing. I thought it was appropriate, in terms of meaning, “in service of” the group.
Yeah, that’s a beautiful and correct understanding of what I tried to say. Absolutely. And you want to be complimentary to your other two partners, as the last thing you want to do is to have three musicians trying to prove each is better than the other. Another item that some take for granted about piano trios is they think that since there’s a keyboard instrument involved, the piano will cover all the oversights of the strings. But no, the piano can’t, because the violin has a voice, and the cello has a voice. Let’s even take a piece like Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Trio, which is almost a piano concerto. If you have a mediocre violinist or cellist and that player is not present to fight back, hold emotion, and challenge the piano, then you lose the edge to the piece. You lose the drama, the despair, the flow, and all sorts of other things that make it one of the cornerstones of dramatic Romantic composition. So, yes, if the pianist has the chops to play Rachmaninoff, you also need two string players who can pass the baton at the same level, and that’s how chamber music should be. It has to be all within a framework of the musical idea, and not just everybody playing loudly or softly when they’re asked to by the score.
As you were speaking about working with Sergey and Ilya, I was thinking how it seems like everyone in the group is really good at listening to each other. And I was wondering if you noticed that as a group, or maybe even working later by yourself, you have been influenced by each other. Is that a noticeable aspect of the trio, that you kind of subtly or subconsciously perhaps influence each other to play a certain way, or is it more about listening?
I think it’s a combination of both, and absolutely we have grown together on stage, especially with this repertoire, the Spanish dances. Every day, you can almost say you get up and it feels different. But one thing we realized, for example, is that these trios do not need to go fast. Use as much rubato as possible. And that’s what makes it fun. That’s what they’re supposed to be. These are fun salon-like pieces. Now, when you’re playing something like the extremely fast second movement of the Turina, which is muted for the strings, and the pianist has this incredible flow, when we actually started to listen back to the recording takes of ourselves, we realized that it sounded very chunky and uneven. It initially sounded like: Here’s the piano, here’s the violin, here’s a cello, here’s the end. We were missing that flowing effect. We were able to talk about the issue openly to each other and to make the adjustment quickly to convey it the correct way on the recorded track. Those kinds of things are important in a relationship: to be able to have a transparent conversation and always to be open to listening to constructive criticism.
In reading over the album notes and listening to the album, I was struck by how each trio is remarkably versatile and seems to ask the performers not only to play their own instruments, but to represent the instruments of a typical Spanish ensemble, as well as to evoke the sort of drama that a dancing couple might demonstrate during a Spanish-style dance. To be fair, I think that for all that these trios ask of the Hermitage Piano Trio, you and your partners are more than capable of handling everything—but I wondered how you negotiated each of these roles and kept sight of the overall goal or feeling that you wanted to convey. Were there any particular recordings, or notes from the composers in their scores, or perhaps other external sources that helped the Hermitage Piano Trio craft a particular sound, or particular approach to this repertoire?
More than my two colleagues, I’m a devoted listener of recordings. Some musicians do not want to listen to anything so that they’re not biased by what they hear when they first learn a composition. But I personally have a belief that even if you’re using the Henle or other Urtext editions for compositions that you are learning (or already performing), why not hear how others play it? There are many great performers, and I believe they all have something to offer, good or bad. They might have been from a different era and play differently, but you can’t be a painter and never go to a gallery to see what other people are doing. Here is the difference. We’re all playing the same music. This is not jazz, where we’re creating things as we go, but still seeing the approach of others gives you a path to other ideas. I remember going to the Chicago Institute of Art when it had a special exhibition of Gauguin and Van Gogh. The Art Institute brought together paintings from all over the world, comparing Gauguin’s approach and Van Gogh’s approach when they painted the same things at the same time. Although Gaugin and Van Gogh lived next to each other during that period, they painted the same subjects from two different perspectives. Even though they were painting the same subjects, their paintings were different because each painter had his own style. It’s okay to listen to others and it’s okay to complain: “Why did they do that?” or “It’s not marked like that in the music part,” etc. I think the more you listen to different recordings of the same piece, the more you will see how differences influence the way a composition sounds. My commentary here also would cover any of my past solo performances. I always liked to hear recordings of many great violinists, like Kreisler, Heifetz, Stern, Milstein, Oistrakh, Menuhin. Nowadays, it’s a very different kind of work approach for me. I don’t have as much time to listen to things and I’ve played a lot of the repertoire. I have come to my own interpretative conclusions, which I feel comfortable with, and it works for me. I don’t really ever feel that I wake up and say, “I need to play the Tchaikovsky Concerto upside down!” because I just want a fresh, new approach to it. I never had the necessity. However, when in doubt, thank goodness for YouTube, as so many things are out there to be heard and to help guide you. Especially those old and rare recordings!
Let’s take a little overview of the Spanish Impressions album repertoire.
The Arbós is a great opener on the album. The dances there are some of the most famous ones hailing from Spain, like the Bolero and Habanera. It is more traditional trio writing than the Perelló, which ends our album. The big difference between these two compositions is that Perelló really allows each instrument to have a section where it has extensive solo moments allowing us to show off our own stuff. Whereas with Arbós, it’s pretty much everybody doing their thing together, and once in a while we each get to show off. So those are the interesting contrasts. You have six movements (each being an individual dance)—if I combined the two compositions—which can have any of the individual movements performed on its own since there is no relationship or connection between any of them. So they can be used in any way, any capacity, mixed or matched.
Now with the Turina, that’s more of a traditional three-movement trio piece. He wrote this after the passing of his daughter. It has a lot of sadness in it. It reminds me in some ways a little bit of the drama and suffering that come across in Rachmaninoff’s Trio No. 2, which is communicated in moments of despair, hope, and almost rage. Turina’s first movement has two main themes (one that is passionate and one that is more melancholy), which alternate throughout the movement. They go back and forth, pulling and tugging, and both are very dramatic. The second movement is kind of dreamy. It goes by very fast, and it needs to have that beautiful roll, which I talked about earlier. In the final movement of the Turina, you can almost hear bells ringing around choral harmonies that will change in mood and character continually until the theme from the first movement reappears. Then we are taken into the very exciting ending of the piece, which sounds quite triumphant.
From the first note, Cassadó is just so intense and explosive. I would say that all three movements make liberal use of features characteristic of the “Spanish sound.” His rhythms and a wide range of swiftly changing dynamics infuse the music with a lively bravado against a backdrop of panoramic splendor. As you are performing the music, you really feel as if you are living through a storybook fantasy. The opening movement explodes out of the gate like a tornado, but contains interludes that provide a stark contrast. The riveting second movement, which features two powerful cadenzas, first by the violinist and then by the cellist, brings out multiple sound effects throughout the rest of the movement, implementing pizzicato, glissando, extreme dynamic ranges, and continuous rhythm changes, all of which add to the dramatic effects. The finale begins with a substantial Recitativo introduction, which then leads into a very graceful and elegant main theme. It’s more of a relaxed, playful atmosphere until the movement reaches the closing section. Here the composer slows things down before the music reaches a broad acceleration both in speed and sound. At the very end there is big, feverish, and volatile material—and then it all ends so abruptly, yet so satisfyingly. As Ilya has pointed out, “Show me another work that has marked six fortissimos at the very end.” That’s actually what is written. It’s definitely a piece you would want to end any concert with.
I listened to the album again last night (before speaking with you today) and it’s just a delight, from start to finish.
Thank you. But let me ask you—between the Turina or Cassadó—which is more to your taste? Is it the more melodic or the more tour de force, as I would call it?
I have a soft spot for the Turina. I really love that it’s so different. I think it’s the most different of all of the trios on the album, actually.
Right? Yes, exactly. Because again, it has the ingredients of a French-like approach to it, even though it was written by a Spanish composer. And it really has that chord progression and other things that remind you of the Impressionist period of music and art. And I would add that the Turina and the Ravel Piano Trio for me are very, very similar in many ways, even though Ravel’s trio, of course, is on a much grander scale. But yes, you’re right because Turina has many more moments of relaxation, swaying, reflecting, and flexibility, while the Cassadó really has almost non-stop intensity, drive, and very few moments for taking a breath. It is just a kind of non-stop emotional roller coaster. Overall, I tend to agree with your choice.
I thought that I definitely heard a bit of Debussy in Turina.
Agreed! You know, the interesting thing about Debussy is we’ve actually never performed his piano trio, but plan to do it, starting next season. But the Ravel Trio seems to be the staple for that period of piano trios, and it’s very difficult to perform freely because the music is so passionate, reflective, monumental, soaring, and trepidatious, but you have to be within the boundaries of the composer’s writing. And of course, for me the Beaux Arts Trio recordings and their videos of live performances are the gold standard. They’re just so godly. That’s the word I would use. It inspires you to try to create, to be that free, and then to be able to enjoy this music which is very difficult to play. For pianists there are so many notes and for string players, the writing is not the most comfortable. But when you have a composer who at every measure has so many details—you know that Ravel wanted the performers to be very precise. However, you still need to find those moments where you can put a little bit of your individuality into it, while still respecting the requests of the composer.
Have you recorded the Ravel Trio?
No, but we’ve performed it many times. Something like that (if we were to record it) would be part of a French-related album. It is something that we talk about because we adore the music.
It seems like you have a really conscientious kind of decision-making process, or thought process, behind the repertoire that you’re putting out there.
Right. I think it’s important because if you don’t believe in the product that you’re trying to sell then, you know, buyer beware. As an example, one Spanish composer that we went back and forth on so much is of course a very famous one, Granados. But the problem is that he wrote a trio which was kind of never completed. It’s a long piece, and then there are so many assertions about it that even though it was published, it has so many discrepancies (mistakes) all over it that when you just start to try to fix it, you’re not even sure what you’re playing is actually the material of the composer. Actually, during our research, we came across someone who wrote a Ph.D. paper on it fairly recently. In the work, to put it bluntly, at least one-quarter of the composition is in question because of issues or doubts about the rhythm, the notes, or something else. The music is good, but it’s not great enough for us to invest almost half of the CD time. Granados is one of those from that same era of composers that we could have used on Spanish Impressions, but unfortunately his trio just did not impress us enough.
I don’t know if that is your next album, but would you be interested in doing more of a contemporary kind of album in the future?
Down the line, of course. But we really feel that there’s enough material to explore between the 1800s and, let’s say, 1950 of piano trio works. I mean, Haydn, of course, was known for his piano trios, but these have been recorded a lot, and by so many groups, and that’s not something that we want to do. Even the Beethoven piano trios have had a good number of recordings, and really good recordings too. We’re really looking to see if we can find some late Classical and early Romantic trios, stretching down into the 1950s or 1960s. It’s kind of like fashion—these piano trios went out of fashion, and we’re trying to bring them back into fashion. So that is what we’re focused on. Additionally, there’s so many fine lesser-known or forgotten Italian composers, German composers, Scandinavian composers, and South American composers. So we are always thinking ahead and exploring.
Of course, for concerts, we’re very much open to (and actually perform) contemporary works. We have a lot of composers that approach us. We always say “Absolutely, we’ll look at it.” We can’t make any promises because it’s not so easy to just say, “Yeah, we’ll play it over here or we’ll play it over there.” The way the music business works is that presenters also have quite a bit of say, because they know their audience. We have to trust them and believe it or not, some presenters still say now that hearing the music of Shostakovich is too modern for their audiences. Some presenters are just the opposite, saying, “Oh, it’s Shostakovich! Yeah, oh my God, it’s so great that you’re playing him!” Bottom line: If we’re recording something, we need to be 1,000 percent behind it. A great example is the Perelló. Don’t ask me what the next option would have been if the Ledins had not been able to find the scores. It would have been such a pity not to have a chance to record it, and we’re just lucky that the music parts came across in time for us to record them.
Do you have any final thoughts or comments that you would like to share with our readers?
We are very proud of this album. We owe so much to Marina and Victor Ledin because they helped to put all of this together. The Ledins presented us with about 10 other Spanish works that were nice, but we had to choose something. So maybe we’ll have a Spanish Impressions II down the line! We also want to thank all the people at Reference Recordings for believing in us, and for capturing our sound. I have to say one last thing in closing, however, and it’s that our trio is very much a primary part of our musical lives. It’s not a secondary thing that we do on the side besides our teaching, or solo performing. We really feel that we have something to say, and we want to do our best to get people back to hearing and enjoying the piano trio. There’s so much beautiful piano trio repertoire out there, some that people already know and some that is still to be found or reborn!
What’s next for the Hermitage Piano Trio?
Well, we’re not ready to announce this, but for our next disc, we know that it is not going to be either Spanish or Russian music. How’s that?