Menahem Pressler, pianist founder of the Beaux Arts Trio died in London yesterday.
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Thankfully he has left a wealth of splendid recordings, not least his late CDs of Mozart concertos and solo pieces , beautifully played as always. -
Originally posted by smittims View Post
It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.Comment
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The Haydn trios are always a delight - life affirming.Comment
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I have the Schumann trios. A present from my brother which, unusually, I appreciated greatly.Originally posted by kernelbogey View PostIt isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.Comment
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I actually met him , perhaps 15 years ago, in New York. I knew his now ex son in law, without knowing he was related to Pressler, and we bumped into them in a restaurant having a family dinner, and of course I was shocked to discover the relationship. I blabbered the usual things and MP smiled graciously. I think he might have been amused to discover that someone was coming up to his table in a restaurant but not for the purpose of talking to himComment
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Very sorry to hear about this, though he was performing well beyond years when others had retired or passed on. I heard him play on several occcasions, even into this century, when he could inject extra life into performances even by some very distinguished fellow performers. As I recall the earliest was a trio performance in Oxford, including the Ravel piano trio around 50 years ago.
MP RIP
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Sad news , great innings though and a wonderful recorded legacy.Comment
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I don’t know the repertoire he specialised in very well, but in fact just a few months ago someone sent me a very early recording of the Fauré op 120 trio which he made in 1957, with Bernard Greenhouse and the violinist, the great violinist, Daniel Guillet. I just want to recommend it, it is a corker of a performance.
He was releasing new recordings up to very recently. There was one of Debussy on DG which he made when he was 93! My notes say that it’s extremely well recorded, and that I enjoyed it, I shall have to revisit.Comment
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Beaux Arts was the default recommendation in just about everything they recorded until a proliferation in trio recordings in the 90s and onward. I still find their Schubert is hard to equalComment
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