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BIOGRAPHY
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PRESS
QUOTES
Reviews for the Gould Piano Trio's recent CD
Brahms, Piano Trios - Volume One
Quartz - QTZ2011
Reviewed in The Sunday Times, 30 January 2005
The hyper-self-critical Brahms destroyed more chamber music than he published. Luckily, the B major piano trio, written when he was only 21, escaped. Many years later, he revised and tightened it in a composite version that preserved and enhanced the magnificent sweep and energy of the original. By contrast, the late C major trio, masterly though it is, wants something of the B major’s freshness of inspiration; but the performance by the Gould Trio is so good – strong, passionate and at the same time delicate – that you are hardly conscious of any lack. They are equally fine in the glorious B major.
Reviewed in The Observer, 17 April 2005
The first of a three-volume, set of complete Brahms trios, with the rest (including horn and clarinet trios) to follow at six-monthly intervals, this elegant, spirited coupling of the first and second piano trios bodes well for the rest of the cycle. Cellist Alice Neary and pianist Benjamin Frith have developed a deep musical understanding with violinist Lucy Gould as her trio tour the UK, Europe and the US in this repertoire, combining a youthful freshness with virtuoso panache as their talents merge into a richly cohesive whole.
Reviewed in The Daily Telegraph, 18 June 2005
The Gould Piano Trio have won plaudits for recordings of Mendelssohn and Beethoven. Here, they are just as persuasive in two contrasting trios by Brahms: the youthful, lyrically expansive B major - drastically revised by the composer in his fifties - and the glorious C major, no less luxuriant in its themes, but far tauter in their development.
Compared with some other groups, the Gould may initially seem to favour Classical restraint over heroic, full-blooded Romanticism. But it soon emerges that their refinement and emphasis on light, lucid textures by no means preclude an authentic Brahmsian intensity.
The Gould are especially good at seeing a movement whole; and if an apparent climax seems underplayed, it will always be because they are eyeing the real climax later in the piece. They have a subtle feeling, too, for the expressive crux of Brahms's long, arching phrases. Both the darting, crepuscular scherzos gain from the Gould's unusual delicacy of touch, while their rarefied playing of the B major's adagio is as moving as any of their emotionally charged rivals.
From the Gramophone, April 2005
Lucy Gould and her colleagues play Op 8’s first movement suavely, with lovely tone and refined expression…In the Scherzo…the Gould Trio, with their lightness of touch , make a special, slightly sinister effect in the quiet passages and, by this delicacy, enhance the explosive impact of the sudden fortes…Benjamin Frith’s ringing tone and virtuoso panache making the most of the brilliant piano writing…the Gould’s superb control and rhythmic precision brings the symphonic argument of the first movement and the Scherzo’s nocturnal rustlings into sharp relief.
MORE REVIEWS
Royal
Northern College of Music
The
Gould Piano Trio revealed the beauty and orthodox mastery
of Clara’s Piano Trio in G minor, after which Robert’s
Fantasiestücke, Op 88, sounded all the more eccentric,
rhythmically obsessive, fascinating, moving. Brahms’s
early piano trio in B came over as the mighty utterance
of a young composer whom both Schumanns regarded as a fully
formed, indeed god-like, genius.
Sunday Times, January 2005
LA
County Museum, Los Angeles
HONEST
EMOTION MEETS ARTISTIC INSIGHT
With
a deeply felt performance of Smetana’s Piano Trio in
G minor, the Gould Piano Trio closed a wonderful three-part
program Wednesday in the Bing Theatre at the Los Angeles
County Museum of Art.
Smetana
composed the work upon the death of his 4-year-old daughter,
Bedriska, from scarlet fever. It will not tolerate a moment
of insincerity or exaggeration from the players. Violinist
Lucy Gould, cellist Alice Neary and pianist Benjamin Frith
met its emotional demands with the highest commitment and
deepest artistic insight, seamlessly moving through its
shifting, conflicting states of feeling while revealing
their complexities and nuances.
To
single out just one example: There’s a moment in the
first movement when a noble cello theme mounts into an impassioned,
then almost hysterical ensemble climax. Shortly after, the
movement breaks down and stops, only to start over again
from the beginning, with a repeat of the violin’s keening
motive. The cycle of grief is endless. All this was detailed
with the most natural sense of inevitability by the Gould
musicians.
Similarly,
they revealed the exposed, vulnerable heart of Brahms in
the vernal simplicity of the third movement of his Piano
Trio Nº 3 in C minor.
Everywhere,
they played with unanimity of impulse and aesthetic. In
Beethoven’s Piano Trio in E flat Opus 1, Nº 1,
which opened the program, they added impishness and urbane
playfulness.
Their
range and variety made for a joyful evening.
Los
Angeles Times, March 7 2003
New
Zealand Tour/ June-July 2002
Benjamin
Frith’s rippling piano and the finely toned strings
of Lucy Gould and Alice Neary reveal why the Goulds are
a top-line ensemble. Gould’s violin can soar like a
lark, with a sweetness of tone that is honey to the ear;
Neary’s spruce, articulated cello lines bring the bounce
and propulsion of a jazz group…. scrumptiously performed.
New Zealand Herald, 1 July 2002
Just
gorgeous: Benjamin Frith’s marvellously fluent piano,
with the innocence of a music box at times, an ingénue
tone from violin, while the sound of Alice Neary’s
cello seemed to float up from the floor, disembodied, without
beginning or end.
Wellington Evening Post, 25 June 2002
English
Music Festival, Stratford-upon-Avon
Their
ensemble is clear, bright and fresh, the ensemble playing
quite faultless.
Birmingham Post/18 October 2002
The
concert was a delight from start to finish. The Beethoven
Trio in E flat (Op 1 No 1) was excellent: crystal clear,
beautifully articulated. The Andante really was as cantabile
as marked; the scherzo fizzed along; and throughout, the
rapport between all three players was complete. They seemed
not merely to be thinking, but also playing as one. Benjamin
Frith's piano was limpid, and violin and cello were, tonally,
matched to perfection.
Music & Vision, March 2003
Purcell
Room Lunchtime Recital
The
Gould Trio is of international calibre and its three players,
each very individual, are adept at the give and take which
is the essence of chamber music conversation, each knowing
when to recede temporarily into an accompanying role.
www.musicweb.uk.net, May 2002
Weymouth
College Theatre
The
group fully lived up to expectations… they gave a performance
which was by turns joyful, heart-rending and full of drama,
but never dull.
Dorset Echo, 22 January 2002
CD:
Mendelssohn Piano Trios Nos. 1 and 2, Naxos
The
Gould Trio gives fine, incisive, carefully moulded, beautifully
coloured and paced performances.
The Sunday Times, 13 January 2002
The
young players of the Gould Trio give performances as fine
as any on disc … [and] prove to be inspired recording
artists, offering passagework of sparkling evenness and
clarity.
The Guardian, 14 December 2001
USA
Tour/ March-April 2001
Gould
Piano Trio makes a spirited debut in L.A. This is a strong
group… spirited and direct. Their sound was big and
bright, their balances assured…
Los Angeles Times, 26 March 2001
Pure
Gould: with clear textures and balanced ensemble, a recital
in New York this April offered trio playing at its best.
The Strad, July 2001
Kendal
Concert Club
…
this was assuredly one of the best-ever concerts. What techniques!
What musicianship!
Westmorland Gazette, February 2001
European
Seminar of Young Musical Talent/ Pilsen
"The
outstanding instrumentalists with their unusual feel for
chamber expression played with perfect intonation and great
depth of tone… Each work, it seemed, had been interpreted
with a discernible strong inner response to the composition."
Region Pizensko, September 1995
Wigmore
Hall Debut Recital
"Brimming
with verve and panache, this talented trio displayed commitment
and maturity in their polished performances."
The
Strad, February 1994
