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Reviews - Sitkovetsky Piano Trio
Sitkovetsky Trio, Smetana's G minor trio/Beethoven's Archduke, Melbourne Recital Centre, 22 and 25 March
2014
"Violinist Alexander Sitkovetsky gave a gripping start to Smetana's G minor Trio, leading his colleagues on a path
that embraced the composer's eloquent melody-writing and the fierce emotion that permeates each of the three
movements [...] The Sitkovetskies have recorded this work, so a consequent ultra-familiarity shone out. Their
achievement in
Beethoven's Archduke was just as eloquent, the timbre of cellist Leonard Elschenbroich a continuous pleasure,
particularly in close partnership passages with Sitkovetsky during this massive work's slow movement."
- Clive O'Connell, The Sydney Morning Herald, 25 Mar 2014
Supersonic - Antonin Dvorak: Klaviertrio Nr. 3; Bedrich Smetana: Klaviertrio op. 15; Joseph Suk: Elegie für
Klaviertrio op. 23, 5 Mar 2014
"Wenn die Musiker des ‘Sitkovetsky Trio’ zum ersten Satz des Dvorak-Trios op. 65 abheben, und die Düsterkeit des
Beginns mit großer Ernsthaftigkeit herausarbeiten, nicht ohne eine gewisse Nähe zu Brahms zu suggerieren, ist der
Hörer sofort auf ihrer Seite, zumal es an Intensität im Spiel der drei nicht fehlt."
- Remy Franck, Pizzicato Magazine, 5 Mar 2014
Antonin Dvorak's Piano Trio no.3 in F minor, op. 65; Bedrich Smetana Piano Trio in G minor, op. 15; Josef Suk
Elegy for piano trio, op. 23 - CD review
"Le Trio Sitkovetsky nous livre un cd de qualité. A la fois brillant, équilibré et profondément inspiré par les contextes
respectifs des oeuvres."
- Michel Lambert, Crescendo Magazine, 24 Feb 2014
Concert, Vancouver, 23 September 2013
"A Schubert Fall for Vancouver listeners got started in a big way this weekend.
Yesterday was the Canadian debut of the Sitkovetsky Trio at the Chan, a concert which took many of us right back to
the glory days of the Vancouver Chamber Music Festival. Alexander Sitkovetsky, violin, Wu Qian, piano, and Leonard
Eischenbroich, cello, hail from Moscow, Shanghai, and Frankfurt respectively, but met at the Menhuin School and
agreed to make England their base of operations. Much in their playing and their essential approach to music making is
congruent with London (and not New York) values. How I enjoyed them: good Brahms, spectacular Mendelssohn.
And then the Schubert E-flat Trio.
I always think twice, then think again, before submitting to the demands of hearing this work. I feel about it the way
many listeners feel about the late, great quartets of Beethoven. It is an impossible piece: absurdly long, annoyingly
repetitive, and emotionally nihilistic.
The three performers are about the same age Schubert was when he composed the piece: here were incredibly gifted
young adults speaking Schubert’s language with a febrile poetry that was both intense and honest.
I never know exactly what audiences take from Schubert’s perplexing final works, but I do know this particular audience
was as wrapped up in the Trio as were its performers. This was magic, pure and simple."
Crescendi Artists
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- Eric Hoeprick, 24 Sep 2013
Concert, Brahms, Mendelssohn, and Schubert, September 2013
"The Sitkovetsky Trio was formed in 2007 at the Menuhin School and they have garnered considerable critical acclaim
over quite a short period of time and won a number of prestigious awards. The programme for this concert comprised
three of the great masterpieces of the chamber music repertoire from the 19th Century.
Brahms’ C minor piano trio was written in 1886 and it is a concentrated and intense work full of big orchestral
sonorities. The piano textures in the opening Allegro energico are particularly dense and complex and Wu Qian
successfully conveyed the dramatic power of the piece while at the same time keeping the textures clear and light so
as not to drown out the string players. All three players managed to convey the symphonic breadth of the opening but I
wondered if the string players could have made a little more of the expressive warmth and rich harmonies in the
second subject. The second movement’s presto non assai marking was scrupulously observed and there was excellent
interplay between the strings. The Sitkovetskys evoked a warm Autumnal glow from the intermezzo third movement
with Wu Qian giving us some exquisitely phrased and expressive playing. The fourth movement starts with a hunting
rondo-type theme and it was played with gusto and rhythmic incisiveness by all three players before the arresting
conclusion.
For those musicians who regard Mendelssohn’s music as superficial, can I please ask you to listen to the second piano
trio? It was written when the composer was at the height of his powers, a year after the great Violin Concerto and the
year before Elijah. It is a passionate and highly intense work that is full of original and highly engaging musical ideas.
The performance from the Sitkovetsky Trio seemed to go up a notch with this piece, which started in a state of subdued
but feverish excitement. The string players moulded Mendelssohn’s lyrical romantic phrases beautifully while Wu Qian
played the intricate piano figurations with brilliance and refinement. In the Andante espressivo there was some sweet
and sensuous playing from the strings with both players weaving elegant threads and traceries of sound, and using
subtle rubato to underscore the gorgeous harmonic shifts. The gossamer scherzo was played very fast indeed and had
the requisite lightness with all three players showing astonishing digital dexterity. I wondered if they might achieve an
even greater degree of delicacy and refinement if they were to slow it down a little. In the finale the Sitkovetskys
brought out the romantic ardour of the piece and there was very well executed interplay between all three players,
while the coda was a blistering tour de force, bringing the first half of the concert to a thrilling conclusion.
Schubert’s late chamber works are among the most sublime pieces of music ever written and they demand the highest
standards of musicianship. I am always slightly apprehensive when younger players tackle a work like Schubert’s Trio
in E flat. However, I am pleased to report that the Sitkovetsky Trio confounded my expectations and gave an absolutely
riveting account of this pinnacle of the chamber music repertoire. The opening Allegro was full of elegant Viennese
charm with the two string players allowing Schubert’s immortal melodies to sing out. There was scrupulous attention to
the composer’s dynamic markings while Schubert’s reflective, poetic voice was given space to breathe. The Andante
con moto is a profoundly moving work – it was introduced to a wide mainstream audience in Stanley Kubrick’s film
Barry Lyndon where it features prominently. The dialogue between Alexander Sitkovetsky and Leonard Elschenbroich
in the middle of the movement was absolutely gorgeous, while the fortissimo outbursts allowed the composer’s
tempestuous emotions to spill out. I wondered if they might make a little more of the sense of poignancy and
heartbreak in the coda – this music is really very special. The third movement canon was light and deft with the
Sitkovetskys playing with an impressive degree of clarity. Schumann referred to the “heavenly lengths” of Schubert’s
great C major Symphony but the same phrase could equally apply to the finale of the E flat Trio which is conceived on
a vast scale. The opening theme was allowed to dance along archly while Qu Wian’s played the swirling and complex
passagework with incredible dexterity and lightness of touch. The Sitkovetskys allowed the composer’s infectious high
spirits to shine through banishing all the feelings of self-doubt before driving the work to its conclusion.
Great playing from the Sitkovetskys – they are clearly chamber music stars of the future."
- Robert Beattie, 21 Sep 2013
Crescendi Artists
[email protected] | www.crescendiartists.com
Coffee Classics concert, St. George's, April 2013
"For their second Coffee Classics concert at St. George's, the young award winning Sitkovetsky Trio picked one of the
masterworks for this combination of violin, cello and piano, Brahms's Piano Trio no. 1 in B, a big challenge. For this is a
work of huge scope and vision. It opens with a surging long melodic line announced by the piano then the cello and
finally the violin, to create a rich warm texture and it takes enormous energy and drive to keep the tension up in a long
and romantic exploration of his ideas about chamber music – this the first chamber work he wrote. The piano part,
played superbly by Wu Qian, is particularly important – Brahms wanted to impress his lifetime love, Clara Schumann –
and anchors the work throughout, especially in the profound Adagio, where cellist Leonard Elschenbroich rightly scaled
down his big tone to match. The final Allegro powered along with the same attack and pace as we heard in the
opening. This was exciting playing. Yet even more energy was unleashed when viola player Lawrence Power joined
them to play Dvorak's ebullient Piano Quartet no.1 in E flat, a work full of frantic energy, syncopated dance themes,
and packed with colour and inventiveness. There may be a bit too much repetition of ideas but performed like this with
maximum warmth and commitment, it sounded like a masterwork."
- thisissomerset.co.uk, April 2013
Concert, The Earl Cameron Theatre at City Hall, February 2013
"This piano, violin and cello concert took the audience along a road upon which much of western classical music has
travelled. There were performances of works which are representative of their period, and a look over the horizon to
what was coming next. The international prize-winning Sitkovetsky Trio is Alexander Sitkovetsky on the violin, Wu Qian
playing the piano and cellist Leonard Elschenbroich.
Their concert on Wednesday evening at the Earl Cameron Theatre at City Hall opened with ‘Piano Trio No 39 in G
Major’, ‘Gypsy’ by Joseph Haydn, who lived between 1732 and 1809. In three movements, the exotic and exciting
presto is the one that many people know, and it is the reason the piece is called ‘Gypsy’. It is a terrific piece of music
that delighted the audience. The andante and poco adagio were not by any means cast into the shade the first
movement should be the very last word in elegance, and it certainly was. The trio also found all the beauty in the
melodic line. The sonorous slow movement is gorgeously melodic as well, and the piano created a particularly bright
backdrop for the strings that were carrying those melodies.
‘No 2 Op 87 in C Major’ by Johannes Brahms brought us to the end of the 19th century, and it is indeed a much more
modern-sounding piece of music which, typically of the composer, is complex and intriguing. The tempo’s sense of
constancy in the first movement, the allegro moderato, provided an anchor for the dynamic solemnity which really
marked it, while the trio’s interpretation of the andante con moto was moodily evocative. The two first movements
provided a direct contrast to the third. Fast-paced and bordering on real modernity, it was especially interesting with
some extreme diametrics between the instruments. Impressionism at its most accessible made the fourth movement an
easy pleasure to which to listen, although it was still interesting to listen for each instrument’s contrasting parts.
The second half of the concert was devoted to a performance of Antonin Dvoák’s ‘Piano Trio No 3 in F Minor’, which
was written in the aftermath of the composer’s mother’s death, a loss which clearly was extremely difficult for him as
the piece describes the deepest mourning. Of the three pieces, the Sitkovetsky Piano Trio seemed to have a special
affection for this one. Their interpretation was especially heart-felt and thoughtful, and it was beautifully executed. The
floods of grief described here were interspersed by the happiest of memories; sunny moments peeking through the
darkest of clouds.
The emotional journey concludes with the finale: allegro con brio, which the trio infused with plenty of dynamic
complexity that really did engage the audience, and the movement ultimately concluded with a sense of courage and
cohesion and perhaps of healing.
Following on the heels of the Palestinian-Israeli piano duo Duo Amal, the week has been one of truly superlative music,
and the Sitkovetsky Piano Trio provided another exceptional evening which was appreciated by an enthusiastic
audience."
- Royal Gazette Bermuda, Feb 2013
Crescendi Artists
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