Proms Chamber Music 8: Benedetti Elschenbroich Grynyuk Trio (7.09.15)

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

13:00
Cadogan Hall


Arlene Sierra: Butterflies Remember a Mountain
Brahms: Piano Trio No. 1 in B major, Op. 8

Benedetti Elschenbroich Grynyuk Trio

When not performing as a soloist, violinist Nicola Benedetti appears frequently as a chamber musician
- most often with the trio she co-founded with pianist Alexei Grynyuk and cellist Leonard Elschenbroich. Here the three musicians pair Brahms's first and stormiest piano trio - its darkness belying the work's major key - with music by American-born composer Arlene Sierra. Inspired by the migration patterns of butterflies, her Butterflies Remember a Mountain is a work of pointillist detail and shimmering harmonies, painted in a sequence of delicate textural gestures.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

The final PCM concert. How time flies!

[CallMePaul]

Which version of the Brahms is being played - the original or the stylistic mish-mash that is the more commonly played revised version? This sort of information is rarely available before a concert.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Oops. Forgot to bump this one before the concert began.

[Richard Tarleton]

Nice piece by Nicola Benedetti in yesterday's Sunday Times recalling her time at the Yehudi Menuhin School, being friends with Alina Ibragimova (whose mother Lutsia was one of her teachers), Lutsia cooking them enormous meals at weekends while they practised, YM passing away 3 weeks before she was due to have lessons with him....

[Flay]

And nice to see a programme about her last night (a repeat perhaps?) touring India last year with the BBCSSO. Lovely to see her coaching young people in a friendly encouraging manner

[richardfinegold]

The final PCM concert. How time flies!

Are they switching to DSD?

[CallMePaul]

Which version of the Brahms is being played - the original or the stylistic mish-mash that is the more commonly played revised version? This sort of information is rarely available before a concert.

It wass the revised version - Petroc as good as said this in his intro and it became obvious as the performance progressed. I have never heard the original although I am aware that it has been recorded more than once.

[Bryn]

And nice to see a programme about her last night (a repeat perhaps?) touring India last year with the BBCSSO. Lovely to see her coaching young people in a friendly encouraging manner

Thanks for the fillip. The programme had entirely missed my attention. Just viewed it via your link. There are a few words starting at 19 minutes 8 seconds which are, for me, the highlight.

[Lento]

Which version of the Brahms is being played - the original or the stylistic mish-mash that is the more commonly played revised version? This sort of information is rarely available before a concert.

I don't know whether it is just because the "mish-mash" is more familiar, but I think I prefer it to the earlier version, which I remember finding a little prone to "meander".

[Lancashire Lass]

Lovely to see her coaching young people in a friendly encouraging manner

I was lucky enough to get a ticket, and was bowled over by the performance. I'd seen NB at the Halle and also the Scottish Prom in 2012 when she played with the Scottish Youth Orchestra and made an impassioned plea for more support in bringing music to young people.

Yesterday, she beamed with delight throughout the (several) curtain calls -- you'd have thought it was her first-ever concert, she looked absolutely thrilled. She really does seem to be as warm and as genuine as she comes over in the press.

[Roehre]

I don't know whether it is just because the "mish-mash" is more familiar, but I think I prefer it to the earlier version, which I remember finding a little prone to "meander".

I think apart from the scherzo we have two different works here, based on identical or at least very similar material.
I slightly prefer the 1854 version. Though it is meandering a bit, its youthfulness and also the incorporation of the Beethoven and Schumann quotes make it nevertheless an enjoyable and intriguing work.
It's the only opportunity to see how Brahms' development within his early-on set melodic style did concentrate on the architecture of the music.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I think apart from the scherzo we have two different works here, based on identical or at least very similar material.

- I prefer the tauter later version, but I suspect that that's because I know it much better.

The original, much less frequently performed and recorded version is available via youTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvGRyM4rcec

It's the only opportunity to see how Brahms' development within his early-on set melodic style did concentrate on the architecture of the music.

Yes - the fact that he kept the melodic & harmonic material, but trimmed it of what he regarded as youthful excesses does give us a rare insight into how his thinking had changed over the thirty-five years between original and revision. And he kept, of course, the breathtaking magic of the move from the end of the Scherzo to the start of the Slow movt.