Hermitage Piano Trio: Rachmaninoff – Reference Recordings HDCD

The Hermitage Piano Trio is distinguished by its exuberant musicality, interpretative range, and sumptuous sound—attributes that Reference Recordings expects to be highly appealing to music lovers and audiophiles worldwide. Following a recent performance, The Washington Post raved that “more striking even than the individual virtuosity was the profound level of integration among the players, who showed a rare degree of ensemble from beginning to end.” Based in the United States, the Trio excels at performing an enormous variety of music and has a wide repertoire ranging from Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, Arensky, Glinka, and Tchaikovsky to Schubert, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Dvořák, and Brahms.

This is their debut album as a trio. More albums with Reference Recordings are planned. Sessions were held at famed Mechanics Hall in Worcester, MA, and were recorded by RR’s engineering team, comprised of GRAMMY®-­winning engineer and Technical Director Keith O. Johnson, and multi­-GRAMMY® nominated engineer Sean Royce Martin. The album was produced by the multi­-GRAMMY® nominated team, Marina and Victor Ledin.

A rarity in the chamber music world, this elite trio is comprised of three musicians who are noted soloists in their own right. In a career already spanning fifty countries on five continents, violinist Misha Keylin is attracting particular attention with his world­ premiere CD series of the seven Henri Vieuxtemps violin concertos. These best­selling recordings have garnered numerous press accolades and awards, including “Critic’s Choice” by The New York Times, Gramophone, and The Strad. Hailed as “a brilliant cellist” by the legendary Mstislav Rostropovich, Sergey Antonov went on to prove his mentor’s proclamation when he became one of the youngest cellists ever awarded the gold medal at the world’s premier musical contest, the quadrennial International Tchaikovsky Competition. Antonov’s entry into this elite stratum of sought­after classical artists has already placed him on stages at world­renowned venues from Russia’s Great Hall at the Moscow Conservatory to Suntory Hall in Tokyo. Pianist Ilya Kazantsev, a fresh and exciting presence on the international music scene and a passionate interpreter of his native Russian repertoire – hailed by The Washington Post as “virtually flawless”–has performed as recitalist and soloist with orchestras in Russia, Canada, Europe, and the United States. Among his many awards and honors, Mr. Kazantsev received first prize at the Nikolai Rubinstein International Competition (Paris) and a won the International Chopin Competition (Moscow) and the 2007 & 2008 World Piano Competitions (Cincinnati).

On This Recording

Trio élégiaque No. 1 in G minor
Trio élégiaque No. 1 in G minor (14:34)
Trio élégiaque No. 2 in D minor, Op. 9

I. Moderato–Allegro vivace (D minor) (19:36)
II. Quasi variazione. Andante (F major) (22:00)
III. Allegro risoluto–Moderato (D minor) (8:33)
Vocalise, Opus 34, No. 12 ( arr. Julius Conus)*

Vocalise, Opus 34, No. 12 (7:00)
* World Premiere recording of piano trio transcription by Julius Conus

Reviews:

“the Hermitage Trio… sound Russian and romantic; they have ardor, but they are not pushy about it. This is best recording I have heard of Trio 1—and that goes for the sound as well. Trio 2 is similar. … the Hermitage wants to burst forth with passion, to let the whole world know!” —Donald Vroon, American Record Guide (2019 ARG Critic’s Choice)

“It was my privilege to attend a day-long recording session for this Rachmaninoff program at Mechanics Hall in Worchester, Massachusetts. (See “Magic at Mechanics” in Issue 279.) Given the artists, repertoire, venue, and production team, I expected a good result. But I couldn’t have predicted what Reference has delivered with the final product. … The performances…are as intensely satisfying as a concert hall experience. … in multichannel especially, this album is among the most convincingly realistic recordings I’ve ever heard. Not to be missed.” —Andrew Quint, The Absolute Sound