GOULD PIANO TRIO
Lucy Gould violin
Alice Neary cello
Benjamin Frith piano
For over twenty years the Gould Piano Trio have remained at the forefront of the chamber
music scene, having been launched into an international career by winning the first
Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition. Selected as YCAT artists they
subsequently became 'Rising Stars' performing at major venues in Europe and North
America. Familiar to listeners of BBC Radio 3, they perform at major festivals and venues
in the UK and abroad, with regular tours to the United States. They have developed a close
relationship with Wigmore Hall in London and draw particular inspiration through creating
their own chamber music festivals in Corbridge, Northumberland and in Cardiff at the Royal
Welsh College of Music. An important part of their life as a trio has been the masterclasses
and workshops they regularly undertake, with residencies at both the Royal Northern and
Royal Welsh Colleges of Music.
The highlight of the 2011/12 season was a Beethoven experience for the Trio and their
followers, as they performed the cycle of piano trios, recorded "live" for Somm at
St.George's Bristol. They also played all the Dvorak trios in the Wigmore's Czech Series.
They have recently recorded the trios by Dvorak and Mendelssohn for Champs Hill Records.
Such undertakings bring an added concentration and absorption in a particular composer
and a new sense of perspective to each work. Their Brahms collection (Quartz label)
includes both his surviving early trios, shedding light on this master's later work. The Trio
is currently involved in recording the seven trios by Hummel (Naxos), works which seem to
provide a commentary on his great contemporaries!
The Goulds have always enjoyed a special relationship with clarinettist Robert Plane;
indeed he features in the recordings of both Beethoven and Brahms. Robert has been a
guiding influence through an on-going series of recordings and performances of the late
Romantic English repertoire. Their British catalogue includes the works of Bax, Scott,
Ireland, Stanford and York Bowen. It is a fulfilling task resurrecting this beautiful repertoire
so long neglected during the latter half of the Twentieth Century. Celebrating many
anniversaries over the years, the Gould's recording with Robert Plane of Messiaen's
Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps (Chandos) was described by BBC Music Magazine as "the
best modern account of the work".
Exciting future projects include a Schumann Trio/Brahms Piano Quartet cycle at St
George’s Bristol and a new piano trio from James MacMillan. Co-commissioned by the
Bath International Festival, East Neuk Festival and Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, other
performances are scheduled at Kings Place and Wigmore Hall in London and at many UK
music societies in the 2014/15 season, with its German premiere in Bensheim recorded by
Hessischer Rundfunk. MacMillan’s first trio Fourteen Little Pictures is featured with
Schubert Trio Opus 100 on their "Wigmore Live" CD .