Beaux Arts Trio
Beaux Arts Trio (photo: Arje Plas/Decca)
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The Beaux Arts Trio (in their line-up of Menahem Pressler, Daniel Hope and Antonio Meneses) play the opening movement of Dvořák's Piano Trio in E minor, 'Dumky'. Filmed at the Herbst Theatre, San Francisco in April 2008.
Founded in 1955 by Menahem Pressler, Daniel Guilet and Bernard Greenhouse, the Beaux Arts Trio performed and recorded until 2008 – always with Pressler at the piano. Celebrated for their outstanding chamber-music qualities, the Beaux Arts were one of the great ensembles of the 20th century. Their set of the complete Haydn piano trios received the Recording of the Year at the 1979 Gramophone Awards, and in 1998 Menahem Presler received Gramophone's Lifetime Achievement Award.
Beaux Arts Trio: a tribute by Susan Tomes
'The Beaux Arts Trio, probably the first full-time piano trio, reigned over the trio world for half a century. Their recordings were benchmarks to which later groups constantly found themselves compared; it felt very daring to take a different path to theirs. Although the trio’s name remained constant over the years, there were a number of personnel changes among the string players. People tend to have their favourite ‘incarnation’ of the Beaux Arts Trio, but common to all was the formidable pianist Menahem Pressler to whom I had the pleasure of playing at the Banff Centre in Canada when I was a young professional. I vividly remember his irrepressible energy and willpower, qualities so central to the personality of the Beaux Arts Trio through the years. His appetite for travelling and giving concerts is legendary in the profession.'
Gramophone Article
Beaux Arts Trio – Interview (Gramophone, June 1990) by Stephen Johnson
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