BENEDETTI ELSCHENBROICH GRYNYUK TRIO

Nicola Benedetti – Violin
Leonard Elschenbroich – Cello
Alexei Grynyuk – Piano

THIS EVENINGS PROGRAM:
Piano Trio  No. 2 in E-flat Major, D. 929 – F. Schubert
Piano Trio in A minor, Op. 50 – P. Tchaikovsky

“A trio of true stars …” – The Telegraph

Each acclaimed as leading soloists of their generation, violinist Nicola Benedetti, cellist Leonard Elschenbroich and pianist Alexei Grynyuk have been performing together as a trio since they met as young music students in London.  While attending the Menuhin School, Benedetti and Elschenbroich played chamber music together and later met Alexei Grynyuk, who was studying at the Royal Academy of Music.  They made their debut as a trio in the 2009/10 season with multiple concerts in the U.K. and at Schloss Elmau in Germany.  Since then, Benedetti, Elschenbroich and Grynyuk have maintained their passionate commitment to chamber music with their regular and compelling performances at prestigious concert halls around the world.

The trio’s recent highlights include performances at the Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Royal Albert Hall London, Birmingham Symphony Hall, LSO St. Luke’s, Frankfurt Alte Oper, Die Glocke Bremen, Hong Kong City Hall, two tours of South America, and an extensive tour of Scotland including concerts at Edinburgh Usher Hall and Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.  Festival appearances include Ravinia, Gergiev, Istanbul, Cheltenham and Edinburgh International.

In 2013, at the behest of Leonard Elschebroich, composer Arlene Sierra wrote a work for the trio titled Butterflies Remember a Mountain, commissioned by the Bremen Philharmonic Society.  The trio premiered the work in Bremen in November 2013 and have since then toured the work internationally in venues including Frankfurt Alte Oper, Cheltenham Town Hall, Amsterdam Concertgebouw and London’s Cadogan Hall. In 2015 the trio played a sold-out BBC Proms appearance at London’s Cadogan Hall.  The Arts Desk lauded the concert as “a convincing Brahms Trio performance to end the [2015] Proms Chamber Music series….  Everything the trio did helped to reveal the complexities and demands of the work as a convincing whole.  The poise and elegance of the hushed ending was remarkable.” Then in 2015-16, the Benedetti Elschenbroich Grynyuk trio made multiple appearances around the United Kingdom, culminating in a February 2016 performance on the Southbank Centre’s International Chamber Music Series in London.

In 2016-17, the trio performed in the United Kingdom, Istanbul, Copenhagen, Dortmund and had their New York debut at the 92nd Street Y. This highly anticipated New York appearance featured a first half of duos: a sonata each by Ravel and Debussy, followed by the U.S. premiere of Mark-Anthony Turange’s Duetti d’Amore, inspired by Benedetti and Elschenbroich’s relationship both on and off stage. They then commenced their season with summer appearances in South America. They performed concerts in Mexico, Lima, Colombia and Chile, marking their third tour to Latin America as a trio. In April 2018, they will perform recitals in North America at Vancouver Recital Society, Tuesday Evening Concert Series (Charlottesville, Virginia) and at Boston’s Gardner Museum.

Nicola Benedetti is one of the most sought after violinists of her generation. Her ability to captivate audiences with her innate musicianship and dynamic presence, coupled with her wide appeal as a high-profile advocate for classical music, has made her one of the most influential classical artists of today. With concerto performances at the heart of her career, Nicola is in much demand with major orchestras and conductors across the globe. Recent highlights include the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic, Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre, Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Berlin Konzerthausorchester, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra Washington, Toronto Symphony and Melbourne Symphony.  Benedetti frequently performs recitals in the world’s leading concert halls and festivals with most recent and future highlights including Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Utrecht, Rome, Copenhagen and Dortmund.

Aside from her work with the trio, Benedetti has also played chamber music at the Verbier Festival, Lockenhaus, Prussia Cove, Tuscan Sun Festival with Jean Yves Thibaudet, and at Tine Munch Music Festival with Truls Mørk and Leif Ove Andsnes. Winner of Best Female Artist at both 2012 and 2013 Classical BRIT Awards, Nicola records exclusively for Decca (Universal Music). Her most recent recording of Shostakovich and Glazunov Violin Concertos has been met with critical acclaim. Richard Morrison of The Times maintains that “This riveting performance of Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto is Nicola Benedetti’s best recording to date”. Her past seven recordings on Universal/Deutsche Grammophon include a varied catalogue of works from Szymanowski Concerto (London Symphony Orchestra/Daniel Harding) to Homecoming; A Scottish Fantasy, which made Nicola the first solo British violinist since the 1990s to enter the Top 20 of the Official U.K. Albums Chart.

Leonard Elschenbroich, described by The New York Times as “a musician of great technical prowess, intellectual curiosity and expressive depth”, has established himself as one of the most charismatic cellists of his generation. His many awards include the Leonard Bernstein Award, Förderpreis Deutschlandfunk, Eugene Istomin Prize, and Borletti Buitoni Trust Award. In 2012 he was accepted onto the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme and was named as Artist-in-Residence of Deutschlandfunk for the 2014-15 season.

Elschenbroich has worked with a number of eminent conductors including Semyon Bychkov, Christoph Eschenbach, Sir Mark Elder, Charles Dutoit, Manfred Honeck, Kirill Karabits, Dmitri Kitajenko, Andrew Litton, Yan-Pascal Tortelier, Vasily Sinasiky, and Edo De Waart. As a soloist he has performed with the London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, WDR Symphony Orchestra, Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin, Dresden Staatskapelle, Swedish Radio Symphony, Basel Symphony Orchestra, Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony, St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Philharmonic, Buenos Aires Philharmonic, Nagoya Philharmonic, Japan Philharmonic, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra Washington, Minnesota Orchestra and Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He has made five appearances at the BBC Proms.

A committed supporter of contemporary music, Elschenbroich has commissioned several new works from composers including Mark-Anthony Turnage, Luca Lombardi, Arlene Sierra and Suzanne Farrin. In April 2018 he gives the world premiere of Mark Simpson’s Cello Concerto with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, a work that has been especially written for him on a commission from the BBC. He recently gave the world premiere of Brian Elias’ Cello Concerto at the BBC Proms and has also championed concertos by Gilbert Amy, Marc-Anthony Turnage, Peteris Vasks, and Magnus Lindberg.

Alexei Grynyuk performs throughout the world and in recital at the Great Hall of Moscow Conservatoire, Wigmore Hall, Southbank Centre in London, Salle Cortot and Salle Gaveau in Paris, Musica Sacra Festival in Netherlands, Duszniki Chopin Festival in Poland, Otono International Music Festival in Madrid, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and other prestigious festivals and venues.  He has performed concertos with the Mexico State Symphony Orchestra, Krakow Philharmonic, Odessa Philharmonic, Brighton Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and the Bolshoi Symphony Orchestra.  Forthcoming engagements include a U.S. concerto tour, a Japan recital tour, a tour with National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, and solo recitals at music festivals in Europe.

Grynyuk’s recitals have been broadcast by BBC Radio 3, Hessicher Rundfunk, Bayerischer Rundfunk, KRO4 Hilversum, Radio France and Netherlands, and televised appearances on Ukrainian, Chinese and Russian channels.  He commemorated Liszt’s bi-centenary at a special concert in Kiev in 2012, performing the composer’s Sonata in B Minor followed by both piano concertos.  Later that year, his performance of the Sonata was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 as a part of ‘Live in Concert’ series in which he portrayed Chopin and Liszt.  In 2013, Grynyuk released an all-Liszt album on the Orchid Classics label.