New Curtis Studio Release is Better Managed

Trio Zimbalist members Timotheos Gavriilidis-Petrin, George Xiaoyuan Fu, and Josef Špaček (photograph by Visual Narrative, Viktor Jelinek, courtesy of Crossover Media)

My first encounter with Curtis Studio, an album label associated with the Curtis Institute of Music, took place this past May and was nothing short of a very frustrating disaster. The title of the album was Revival, and it consisted of three solo piano selections performed by Michelle Cann. The first two were by Florence Price, her E minor piano sonata and three of the movements from her Fantasie nègre collection. The album then concluded with Margaret Bonds’ Spiritual Suite.

This struck me as the perfect opportunity to introduce the Curtis Studio label to readers. Unfortunately, due to a poor relation between Curtis and its publicist, I could not provide any useful hyperlinks to readers interested in listening to this album. As a result, I was never able to release an informative article; and I bailed on the whole project.

At the beginning of this month, I learned (by another publicity source) of a new Curtis Studio release. This time I received more reliable information, including a hyperlink for digital download from Amazon.com. I was also pleased to see that the new publicity service had provided a similar hyperlink for the Revival album.

The new album presents three piano trios performed by Trio Zimbalist, named after Efrem Zimbalist, who began teaching at Curtis in 1928 and served as its Director between 1941 and 1968. Ironically, none of the related background information seems to have taken the trouble to identify these three musicians by name. Fortunately, the trio has its own Web site with a highly informative “About” Web page. The group is decidedly international. The violinist, Josef Špaček, is Czech, the cellist, Timotheos Gavriilidis-Petrin, is Greek (currently Principal Cello in the Athens State Orchestra), and the pianist is Chinese-American George Xiaoyuan Fu.

The most familiar offering on the album is the final selection, Antonín Dvořák’s Opus 90 (fourth) piano trio in E minor, frequently known as the “Dumky,” since each of the six movements is based on the dumka structure. This composition was on the first recital program that the trio performed. The other two selections are less familiar and more adventurous. The album begins with Mieczysław Weinberg’s Opus 24 piano trio, followed by Lera Auerbach’s first piano trio, her Opus 28.

Both of these composers have decidedly interesting backgrounds. Weinberg was lucky enough to escape Poland after the outbreak of World War II by crossing the Soviet border. He eventually established himself in the musical community with particular support from composers such as Dmitri Shostakovich and Aram Khachaturian. Auerbach, on the other hand, defected from the Soviet Union in 1991. Unless I am mistaken, San Francisco Performances has presented four recitals by her, the most recent having been in March of 2018. More recently, her “Triptych—This Mirror Has Three Faces” was performed in a San Francisco Symphony Chamber Music Series concert in October of 2022.

Taken as a whole, the three tracks make for a decidedly engaging listening experience. I always enjoy Weinberg compositions that offer a “nod of gratitude” to Shostakovich. Ironically, prior to my encounter with Trio Zimbalist, I knew almost nothing about the piano trio repertoire in Auerbach’s catalog except for “Triptych.” As a result, her Opus 28 made for a highly satisfying journey of discovery, leaving me hoping that it will not be long before she returns to give another performance in San Francisco.