Gould Piano Trio

Program

For over 20 years the Gould Piano Trio has remained at the forefront of the chamber music scene. With regular tours in the U.S. and appearances at major chamber music festivals, the trio members are also passionate educators, imparting their vast knowledge and experience through masterclasses and workshops.

Franz Joseph Haydn (1732–1809)
Trio in C Major Hob XV: 27

Charles Villiers Stanford (1852–1924)
Trio in G minor, Op. 73, No. 2

​Felix Mendelssohn (1809–1847)
Trio in D minor, Op. 49, No. 1

About the Artists

For over twenty years the Gould Piano Trio have remained at the forefront of the chamber music scene, having been launched into an international career by winning the first Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition. Selected as YCAT artists they subsequently became ‘Rising Stars’ performing at major venues in Europe and North America.

Familiar to listeners of BBC Radio 3, they perform at major festivals and venues in the UK and abroad, with regular tours to the United States. They have developed a close relationship with Wigmore Hall and draw particular inspiration through creating their own chamber music festivals in Corbridge, Northumberland and in Cardiff at the Royal Welsh College of Music.  An important part of their life as a trio has been the masterclasses and workshops they regularly undertake, with residencies at both the Royal Northern and Royal Welsh Colleges of Music.

Last year was a Beethoven experience for the Trio and their followers, as they performed the cycle of piano trios, recorded live for Somm at St.George’s Bristol. They also played all the Dvorak trios in the Wigmore’s Czech Series. They have recently recorded the trios by Dvorak and Mendelssohn for Champs Hill Records. Such undertakings bring an added concentration and absorption in a particular composer and a new sense of perspective to each work. Their Brahms collection (Quartz label) includes both his surviving early trios, shedding light on this master’s later work.  The Trio is currently involved in recording the seven trios by Hummel (Naxos), works which seem to provide a commentary on his great contemporaries.

Their British catalogue includes the works of Bax, Scott, Ireland and Stanford and soon to be recorded, York Bowen.  It is a fulfilling task resurrecting this beautiful repertoire so long neglected during the latter half of the Twentieth Century. Celebrating many anniversaries over the years, the Gould’s recording with Robert Plane of Messiaen’s Quattour pour la Fin du Temps (Chandos) was described by BBC Music Magazine as “the best modern account of the work.”

Exciting future projects include a new piano trio from James MacMillan co-commissioned by the Bath International Festival and Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, followed by performances at Kings Place and Wigmore. His first trio Fourteen Little Pictures is featured on their Wigmore Live CD along with the Schubert Trio in E Flat, a work they performed as part of the BBC Radio 3 ‘Spirit of Schubert’ festival last year.