Ruehr: Winter Night Boston Trio

• Elena Ruehr (b. 1963): Piano Trio No. 4:
• 1 Ruehr: Piano Trio No. 4: I. Ski 05:20
• 2 Ruehr: Piano Trio No. 4: II. Kayak 04:36
• 3 Ruehr: Piano Trio No. 4: III. Bike 04:55
• Piano Trio No. 5 "Troubled Times":
• 4 Ruehr: Piano Trio No. 5 "Troubled Times": I. gutty and laborious 06:39
• 5 Ruehr: Piano Trio No. 5 "Troubled Times": II. spooky then aggressive 02:27
• 6 Ruehr: Piano Trio No. 5 "Troubled Times": III. playful but anxious 04:20
• Piano Quartet No. 2 "Maple":
• 7 Ruehr: Piano Quartet No. 2 "Maple": I. Sapling 03:35
• 8 Ruehr: Piano Quartet No. 2 "Maple": II. Prelude, Fughetta, Chorale 04:29
• 9 Ruehr: Piano Quartet No. 2 "Maple": III. The Luthier 03:40
• Piano Trio No. 3 "Winter Night":
• 10 Ruehr: Piano Trio No. 3 "Winter Night": I. Lyrical 04:52
• 11 Ruehr: Piano Trio No. 3 "Winter Night": II. Grazioso 04:30
• 12 Ruehr: Piano Trio No. 3 "Winter Night": III. Aria 03:42
• 13 Ruehr: Piano Trio No. 3 "Winter Night": IV. Finale 04:44
• Total Runtime 57:49

Info for Ruehr: Winter Night

Die produktive Komponistin Elena Ruehr verleiht ihren Kammermusikwerken durch programmatische Elemente Ausdruck und Dynamik. „Winter Night“ ist das Ergebnis einer engen Zusammenarbeit mit dem Boston Trio, das in Elenas Klavierquartett durch den Bratschisten Marcus Thompson ergänzt wird.

Eine Fülle programmatischer Musik durchzieht „Winter Night“, die siebte Veröffentlichung der Komponistin Elena Ruehr bei AVIE. Das Album ist das Ergebnis einer besonders engen Zusammenarbeit mit den internationalen Mitgliedern des Boston Trios – der rumänischen Geigerin Irina Muresanu und dem rumänischen Cellisten Mihai Marica sowie dem koreanischen Pianisten Heng-Jin Park –, die in Elenas Klavierquartett von dem in New York geborenen Bratschisten Marcus Thompson ergänzt werden.

Emotionen, Energie und die Natur sind in den Weltpremieren-Aufnahmen der vier Werke des Albums reichlich vertreten. Der Titelsong, Elenas Klaviertrio Nr. 3, ist eine vierteilige Erzählung, die abwechselnd lyrisch, anmutig und melodisch ist. Das fröhliche Klaviertrio Nr. 4 mit dem Untertitel „Ski, Kayak, Bike“ erinnert an Kindheitssportarten, die sie gemeinsam mit ihrem Vater, dem Widmungsträger des Werks, ausübte. Die drei Sätze des Klaviertrios Nr. 5, „Troubled Times“, setzen sich mit emotionalen Reaktionen auf schwierige persönliche Umstände auseinander, erscheinen aber angesichts der aktuellen Weltlage auch gerade jetzt besonders passend. Das Klavierquartett Nr. 2, „Maple“, ist eine Hommage an einen uralten Baum, der die Zeit überdauert hat – ganz wie die Stradivari-Instrumente, die aus diesem schönen, dichten Holz gefertigt wurden. Elenas Musik nimmt passenderweise Bezug auf Komponisten, die zur gleichen Zeit wie der berühmte Geigenbauer wirkten: Bach, Pachelbel und Vivaldi.

Ich hörte das Boston Trio zum ersten Mal vor fast 30 Jahren bei einem Konzert in der Jordan Hall in Boston. Ich war tief beeindruckt von ihrer Musikalität und wollte ein Werk für sie schreiben. Im Laufe der Jahre freundete ich mich sowohl mit der Pianistin Heng-Jin Park als auch mit der Geigerin Irina Muresanu eng an. Ich besuchte viele ihrer Konzerte und komponierte eine Reihe von Werken für sie, darunter je ein Konzert und zahlreiche Kammermusikstücke. Aber ich wollte schon immer ein Trio speziell für das Boston Trio schreiben und mit ihnen an einer Aufnahme arbeiten. Dieses Album ist eine Zusammenstellung von Werken und die Verwirklichung eines Traums. Mit dabei sind Irina Muresanu, Heng-Jin Park, Mihai Marica und der Gastbratschist Marcus Thompson im Klavierquartett.

Boston Trio
Marcus Thompson, Bratsche

Boston Trio
Violinist Irina Muresanu, cellist Mihai Marica, and pianist Heng-Jin Park each have distinguished careers as soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, and have appeared with major orchestras and premier music festivals throughout the United States and Europe. The Boston Trio is passionately committed to furthering the exposure and performances of new music. They have premiered several works written for and dedicated to them. The trio has been invited to perform for numerous prestigious music series including the Celebrity Series of Boston, Seiji Ozawa Hall in Tanglewood, Chamber Music Society of Utica, Gualala Arts Chamber Music Series, ‘First Monday’ series at the New England Conservatory of Music (NEC), Bay Chamber Concerts in Rockport, Maine, Harvard Musical Association, Concerts at the Point, Brigham Young University, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Howland Chamber Music Circle, University of Arkansas, Merkin Hall, and for a nationally televised concert from the Belgrade Music Festival at Kolarac Foundation Hall in Serbia. The Boston Trio has released several acclaimed recordings. Actively involved in the education of the next generation of musicians, the Boston Trio has held mini-residencies at the Dickinson College (Pennsylvania), Gordon College (Massachusetts), St. Olaf College (Minnesota), and Luther College (Iowa). The trio members have coached chamber music at Tanglewood Institute of Music, Harvard University, and MIT, and served as ensemble-in-residence at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and at NEC. The Trio is committed to bringing chamber music to a broader community through outreach activities at public schools and assisted living centers. The Boston Trio’s individual members serve on the faculties of the NEC, the University of Maryland, and MIT, and are in demand as master class teachers throughout the United States, Asia and Europe.

Marcus Thompson
violist, has appeared as soloist, recitalist, and in chamber music series throughout the Americas, Europe, and the Far East. He has been a soloist with the orchestras of Atlanta, Chicago, Cleveland, and Saint Louis, the National Symphony, the Boston Pops and the Czech National Symphony in Prague. He performed Keith Jarrett’s Bridge of Light with the Atlanta Symphony, and regional premieres of John Harbison’s Viola Concerto: on the West Coast with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (with the composer conducting), in Chicago with the Chicago Sinfonietta, and in Boston with the NEC Honors Orchestra.

Thompson has received critical acclaim for his performances of the Penderecki Viola Concerto in Boston with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Symphony Orchestra and in London (UK); for the premiere of Elena Ruehr’s Viola Concerto Shadow Light with the New Orchestra of Washington; and for the premiere of Olly Wilson’s Viola Concerto with the Rochester Philharmonic. He has played Hindemith’s Viola d’amore Concerto (Kammermusik No. 6) with the Philadelphia Orchestra in Saratoga and concertos by Vivaldi at the Bravo Festival in Colorado and at Aston Magna in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

He has premiered and performed many recital and chamber works by MIT composers including Peter Child, Keeril Makan, Charles Shadle, and John Harbison, and has recorded Barry Vercoe’s iconic Synapse for Viola and Computer. His recording of the Concerto for Viola, Chamber Orchestra & Percussion commissioned from composer and organist Anthony Newman in 1985 was re-released along with concertos for five other instruments by the composer.

Thompson’s recordings with orchestra also include concertos by Hindemith, Bartók, Serly, and Bloch, along with works by Françaix, Martin, and Jongen. Recent releases include Elena Ruehr’s Shadow Light with the New Orchestra of Washington, and John Harbison’s Viola Concerto with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project.

Thompson has been a guest of the Audubon, Borromeo, Cleveland, DaPonte, Emerson, Fine Arts, Jupiter, Lydian, Miami, Muir, Orion, Parker, Shanghai, and Vermeer string quartets and a frequent participant at chamber music festivals in Anchorage, Seattle, Sitka, Los Angeles, Montreal, Edmonton, Rockport (Massachusetts and Maine), Rio de Janeiro, Spoleto, Amsterdam, Dubrovnik and Okinawa. He has been a frequent guest of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and performed with them on a Live from Lincoln Center telecast. He appears on recordings of chamber works released by Music from the Sitka Festival, Het Reizend Muziekgezelschap, and the Boston Chamber Music Society.

Born and raised in the Bronx, New York, Thompson holds a doctorate in viola performance from Juilliard. He currently lives in Boston, where he is a member of the viola faculty at New England Conservatory. He has served as violist and Artistic Director of the Boston Chamber Music Society since 2009 and is the founder of the MIT Chamber Music Society and the Institute’s Emerson/Harris private study program. In 1995 he was recognized for his extraordinary teaching at MIT and named a Margaret MacVicar Faculty Fellow and Robert R. Taylor Professor of Music, followed a decade later by his appointment as Institute Professor.

In 2022, at its 47th International Viola Congress, Thompson was awarded the American Viola Society Career Achievement Award ‘In recognition of distinguished contributions to viola performance and viola pedagogy through his influential recordings and his celebrated tenure at NEC and MIT, hosting the 1985 International Congress, and for advocacy and leadership on behalf of the viola.’

Elena Ruehr
says of her music, ‘the idea is that the surface be simple, the structure complexWritten for violinist Tom Stone, this piano trio is subtitled ‘S . And from Gramophone Magazine, ‘The sound world is wholly Ruehr: it never sounds like anyone else and the effect is exhilarating… her output is unified by her desire to communicate effectively without compromise…’

Currently composer-in-residence with Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra, her discography includes orchestral works (O’Keeffe Images, BMOP Sound), the opera Toussaint Before the Spirits (BMOP Sound), cantatas (Averno, with the Trinity Choir, Avie), and chamber music (Six String Quartets, with the Cypress String Quartet, Borromeo Quartet and Stephen Salters, Avie). Her other recordings include Icarus (Avie), Jane Wang considers the dragonfly (Albany), Lift (Avie), Shimmer (with Metamorphosen Chamber Ensemble, Albany) and Shadow Light (with the New Orchestra of Washington / Marcus Thompson, Acis), among many others.

While she has a standing collaboration with Quartet ES, her works have also been commissioned, recorded, and performed by numerous other ensembles including the Arneis, Biava, Borromeo, Cypress, Delgani, Lark, Quartet Nouveau, Roco and Shanghai string quartets. An award-winning faculty member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), she has been a Guggenheim Fellow, a fellow at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute and composer-in-residence with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Known for her vocal music and collaboration with poets, she has written five operas, five cantatas and a number of songs. She has also written extensively for orchestra, chorus, wind ensemble, chamber ensemble, instrumental solo, opera, dance and silent film. Her work has been performed internationally and has been described as ‘sumptuously scored and full of soaring melodies’ (New York Times) and ‘unspeakably gorgeous’ (Gramophone). ‘Whenever this trio plays, drop everything and go hear them!’ hailed the Boston Globe on the occasion of the Boston Trio’s Tanglewood debut at Ozawa Hall. Acclaimed for their superb sense of ensemble and wondrous balance, these virtuosic and profound musicians are committed to creating exceptional and daring performances of the standard and contemporary repertoire.

Booklet for Ruehr: Winter Night