MinYoung Cho, violin
Boyan Bonev, cello
Eun Mi Lee, piano
- MOZART: Trio in B-flat Major for Piano, Violin and Cello, K.502
- PIAZZOLLA: The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires
- SHOSTAKOVICH: Trio No.2 in E Minor for Piano, Violin and Cello, Op.67
As a winner of the American Fine Arts Festival earlier this year, Dr. Cho performed at Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall), and also was awarded an AFAF Summer Music Courses in Europe scholarship. Other competition wins include the Korea Music Competition, the Chungbu Conservatory Competition, and the Music World Newspaper Company’s Competition. Dr. Cho received her Bachelor of Music degree from Dankook University in Korea, and both her master's and doctoral degrees from Florida State University, where she also has taught as a Graduate Assistant. Her principal teachers have included Corinne Stillwell, Karen Clarke and Daesik Kang.
Dr. Bonev teaches cello and double bass at the University of West Florida, and previously taught at Albany State University and Darton College. He is on the faculty of the Florida State University Summer Music Camps, and he taught cello and chamber music as a Graduate Assistant at FSU. Dr. Bonev performs with the Tallahassee, Pensacola, Mobile, Florida Lakes, and Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestras.
In 2007, Ms. Lee was accepted into the Master’s program in Florida State University's College of Music, working closely with Valerie M. Trujillo, the Grammy-nominated associate professor of vocal coaching and accompanying. Much in demand as a collaborative artist, Ms. Lee has pursued an interest in performing new music, and recorded Soo Jin Cho's 2-piano work, Exodus, released by the Society of Composers, Inc., in March 2010, on an album entitled Mosaic. Eun Mi Lee is currently a doctoral candidate at FSU.
PROGRAM NOTES by Edward Lein, Music Librarian
MOZART: Piano Trio in E Minor, K. 502 [PDF Score]
On YouTube: 1. Allegro | 2. Larghetto | 3. Allegretto
Austrian-born Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), unquestionably one of the greatest composers in history, began his career touring Europe as a 6-year-old piano prodigy, and he absorbed and mastered all the contemporary musical trends he was exposed to along the way. Mozart is seldom, if ever, called “The Father of the Modern Piano Trio,” but he well might be as he was the first composer to treat the violin and cello as partners independent of the keyboard. Earlier works for the ensemble, and even those by Haydn written after Mozart had died, mostly relegated the strings as optional parts that merely doubled and reinforced the piano or harpsichord, which was still a popular household instrument among amateur players. Mozart wrote the first three of his six piano trios in the summer of 1786, and the rest in 1788. The B-flat major Piano Trio, K. 502, was the third one composed, and it is considered his finest—most of the others were intended for amateur musicians, whereas he intended to perform this one himself. It is one of the few works for which his working sketches survive, and from them it is clear that he took the challenge of achieving the proper balance among the instruments very seriously. But, of course, being Mozart there is little wonder that he succeeded so perfectly.
PIAZZOLLA: Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas
On YouTube: Primavera Porteña | Verano Porteño | Otoño Porteño | Invierno Porteño
Ástor Piazzolla (1921-1992) pretty much single-handedly reinvented the Argentine national dance, the tango, transforming it into a new style aptly called nuevo tango ("new tango"). Born in Argentina, Piazzolla spent most of his childhood in New York City, where he was exposed to American jazz. When he returned to Argentina in 1937 he played with some of the leading dance bands, and he began studying with noted composer Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983). In 1953 Piazzolla won a grant to study in Paris with legendary teacher Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979), who found Piazzolla's music well-crafted but derivative. But when she finally got him to show her some of the music he wrote for his cabaret band, she convinced him to toss out his other works and concentrate on what was uniquely his own. He returned to Argentina in 1955, introducing his "new tango” which infused traditional elements with characteristics of jazz and techniques adapted from his classical studies. It is estimated that he composed over 3,000 pieces, and he recorded about 500 of them himself. Although perhaps inspired in some way by Vivaldi’s famous concertos, the movements of Piazzolla’s Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas (The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires) originally were not conceived as a suite. The Spring movement was composed in 1965, Autumn in 1969, and Summer and Winter both in 1970, and they were originally scored for violin (viola), piano, electric guitar, double bass and bandoneón. The piano trio version is by José Bragato (b.1915), a cellist who often performed with Piazzolla.
SHOSTAKOVICH: Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67
On YouTube: I. Andante. II. Allegro non troppo. -
III. Largo. - IV. Allegretto - beginning / - ending
Joining Prokofiev and Khachaturian, Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) is one of few composers of the former Soviet Union to sustain a large following in the West, but his career was far from “smooth sailing.” During his lifetime his music was periodically banned by Stalinist authorities, so he withheld his more personal works until after Stalin’s death in 1953. Shostakovich likewise has had detractors among many of the West’s avant-garde musicians who wielded their own brand of artistic totalitarianism, dismissing works by any who used tonal idioms to communicate directly with listeners. Ignoring the ideological tyranny on both fronts, performers and listeners have always embraced Shostakovich’s music, and he remains among the most frequently performed and recorded 20th-Century composers. Written in 1944 while the world was at war, Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No. 2, Op. 67, definitely falls into the “personal” category. Not only does it encapsulate the tragedy of war, beginning with an other-worldly fugue and ending with a klezmer-like dance of death, but it also became reflective of the composer’s immediate grief: the Trio is dedicated to the memory of Ivan Sollertinsky (1902-1944), a musicologist and close friend of the composer who died of a heart attack during the time that Shostakovich was writing the work.
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