Coastal Concerts to host Smetana Trio in Lewes Feb. 24
The celebrated Smetana Trio, in a long-awaited return to the U.S., will perform in a Coastal Concerts presentation at Bethel United Methodist Church Hall, 4th and Market streets in Lewes, starting at 2 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 24.
Tickets are $35, with free admission to each youngster 18 and under with an accompanying adult. Discounted tickets are available at $10 for students 19 and older, and for active-duty and retired career military personnel. Valid IDs are required for student and military discounts. Additional information about Coastal Concerts, this season's remaining concerts, and volunteer opportunities is available at www.coastalconcerts.org or by calling 1-888-212-6458.
Founded in 1934 by legendary Czech pianist Josef Páleníček, violinist Alexandr Plocek and cellist František Smetana, the trio remains the foremost Czech chamber ensemble. Currently comprising Jitka Cechová (piano), Jiří Vodíčka (violin) and Jan Páleníček (cello), the Smetana Trio perpetuates the interpretational ideals created by its illustrious predecessors as well as other superlative 20th and 21st century soloists active in chamber music.
The program will be Piano Trio in D Minor, by Alexander Zemlinsky; Piano Trio No. 1 in C Minor, by Dmitri Shostakovich; and Piano Trio No. 1 in D Minor, by Felix Mendelssohn. "There is nothing routine about the Smetana Trio's approach to this engaging repertoire. Every aspect of their interpretation is carefully considered without losing an ounce of spontaneity. Individual lines are remarkable for their focus and beauty, though the powerful sense of ensemble is never sacrificed to individual display," said a review in BBC Music Magazine.
In spring 2017, the Smetana Trio won the BBC Music Magazine Chamber Award for its recording of the complete trios of Bohuslav Martinü, released by Supraphon Records in March 2015. The acclaimed recording received other recognition, including BBC Music Magazine's June 2016 Recording of the Month, Sunday Times Recording of the Week, Diapason d'Or Award, and a review on theArtsDesk.com saying, "This is the greatest chamber disc I've heard in ages, and I can't imagine a better introduction to Martinü's music."
Following a successful North American tour in the 2014-15 season, the Smetana Trio returns to the United States in spring 2018 for a 10-city tour with a program that includes piano trios by Zemlinsky, Shostakovich, and Mendelssohn. Highlights from this sprawling tour include performances at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., The Philharmonic Society of Orange County, Duke Performances Chamber Arts Series, the Chicago Chamber Music Society, and the Da Camera Society in Los Angeles.
The Smetana Trio has toured extensively as both chamber music ensemble and orchestral soloists, working with conductors such as Jirí Belohlávek, Libor Pešek, John Axelrod, Michael Boder, Tomáš Hanus and Stanislav Vavrínek, and orchestras such as the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra della Svizzera italiana Lugano, Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, Prague Symphony Orchestra, Prague Philharmonic, Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Pardubice and Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra Olomouc. Festivals and concert series include Cambrai, Aix-en-Provence and Nice in France, and Munich, Würzburg and Tübingen in Germany. In 2015, the Smetana Trio toured South America with performances in Lima, Medellin, Rio de Janeiro as well as a performance of the Beethoven Triple Concerto with the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra.
With an extensive discography recorded exclusively for Supraphon since 2000, the group's recordings include an album featuring the complete piano trios of Shostakovich and Ravel, and an all-Dvořák disc which received BBC Music Magazine's Chamber Award for 2007 and the French Diapason d'Or. Additional discs include works by Smetana, Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn and Schubert.
Coastal Concerts is a nonprofit organization committed to promoting classical music appreciation through live concerts, outreach and educational activities by presenting word-class musicians in public concerts. Coastal Concerts programs are made possible, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency committed to promoting and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts. The division promotes arts events on www.delawarescene.com.
