Centrum is excited to kick off the 2019 Chamber Music season with a special engagement featuring the legendary Smetana Trio.
The Smetana Trio was founded in 1934 by the legendary Czech pianist Josef Pálenícek, violinist Alexandr Plocek and cellist František Smetana. Today, it is the foremost Czech chamber ensemble.
Smetana Trio
Saturday, February 23, 2019
2 pm, Joseph F. Wheeler Theater
Sponsored by Anne and Dick Schneider
TICKETS AVAILABLE AT THE BOX OFFICE
Program
Rachmaninov–Trio élégiaque No. 1 in G minor
Arensky–Trio No. 1 in D minor for violin, cello and piano, Op. 32
Smetana–Trio for violin, cello and piano in G minor, Op. 15
The Artists
Currently comprised of Jitka Cechová (piano), Radim Kresta(violin), and Jan Pálenícek (cello), the Smetana Trio perpetuates the interpretational ideals created by its illustrious predecessors as well as other superlative 20th-century soloists active in chamber music.
“There is nothing routine about the Smetana Trio’s approach to this engaging repertoire. Every aspect of their interpretation is carefully considered without losing an ounce of spontaneity. Individual lines are remarkable for their focus and beauty, though the powerful sense of ensemble is never sacrificed to individual display.” – BBC Music Magazine
Following a triumphant, multi-city North American tour in the 2017-2018 season, the Smetana Trio returns to the United States in spring 2019 with programs including piano trios by Rachmaninoff, Martinů, Dvořák, Novak, and Smetana.
The Smetana Trio has toured extensively in both chamber ensemble and as orchestral soloists, working with conductors such as Jirí Belohlávek, Libor Pešek, John Axelrod, Michael Boder, Tomáš Hanus and Stanislav Vavrínek and orchestras such as the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra della Svizzera italiana Lugano, Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Prague Philharmonic, Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Pardubice and Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra Olomouc. Festivals and concert series include Cambrai, Aix-en-Provence and Nice in France, and Munich, Würzburg and Tübingen in Germany. In 2015 the Smetana Trio toured South America with performances in Lima, Medellin, Rio de Janeiro as well as the Beethoven Triple Concerto with the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra.
With an impressive discography of nearly a dozen albums recorded exclusively for Supraphon since 2000, the group’s recordings include an album featuring the complete piano trios of Shostakovich and Ravel, and an all-Dvořák disc which received BBC Music Magazine’s Chamber Award for 2007 and the French Diapason d’Or. Additional discs include works by Smetana, Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn and Schubert. In spring 2017, the Smetana Trio was voted to win the BBC Music Magazine Chamber Award for its recording of the complete trios by Bohuslav Martinů, released by Supraphon Records in March 2015. The acclaimed recording received such recognition as BBC Music Magazine’s June 2016 Recording of the Month, Sunday Times Recording of the Week, Diapason d’Or award, and a review on theArtsDesk.com opining “this is the greatest chamber disc I’ve heard in ages, and I can’t imagine a better introduction to Martinů’s music.”