Trio Elegiaque performs Great Russian Masterpieces

Trio Elegiaque performs Great Russian Masterpieces

The newly formed Trio Elegiaque will be touring South Africa with a programme of great Russian masterpieces – a must for lovers of Romantic chamber music. Violinist Sergei Malov is a prize-winner of several international violin competitions, soloist with the London Philharmonic and Bavarian Radio Symphony and a regular at festivals such as Verbier and Kuhmo. Pianist Bryan Wallick, Gold medallist of the 1997 Vladimir Horowitz International Piano Competition in Kiev, performs throughout the United States, Europe, and South Africa. Internationally acclaimed local cellist, Peter Martens, needs no introduction.

Their programme will open with the Trio Elegiaque no. 1 in g minor by Rachmaninoff – a lugubrious single movement work that pre-empts the more famous piano trio Op. 9 in which Rachmaninoff pays tribute to his mentor Tchaikovsky. Tchaikovsky’s mammoth Piano Trio is one of the truly great Romantic masterpieces for this genre, but perhaps because of the virtuosity required to perform it, is less seldom heard in concert than concert goers might like. Between these two trios, Trio Elegiaque will aptly include the Piano Trio no. 2 by Shostakovich. This trio is full of emotion attributable to the Second World War, the opening harmonics in the cello part perhaps symbolizing the desolation and cold of Siberia to the aggression of the second movement depicting the terrors of the fighting itself.

The concert takes place on Friday 23 September at 20h00 in the Endler hall.

Tickets for R140 (regular) and R100 (students and pensioners) are available now through Computicket and at the door.

For more information contact Fiona Grayer at concerts@sun.ac.za or 021 808 2358.