Trio Pittsburgh - Music for Harp, Violin and Cello

Trio Pittsburgh--comprised of Principals from the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Gretchen Van Hoesen, harp Noah Bendix-Balgley, violin Anne Martindale Williams, cello Trio by Joseph Haydn, Sonata for Violin and Harp by Adrian Shaposhnikov, A Chloris by Reynaldo Hahn, Trio by Henriette Renie, Por Una Cabeza by Carlos Gardel (used in the film, Scent of a Woman) Most of this music is recorded for the first time with duos for violin and harp as well as trios for violin, cello, and harp. NOAH BENDIX-BALGLEY has been Concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra since 2011. Mr. Bendix-Balgley is a Laureate of the 2009 Queen Elisabeth Competition (Brussels), and also won First Prize at the 2011 Vibrarte International Music Competition (Paris), First Prize and a Special Prize for Best Bach Interpretation at the 14th International Violin Competition "Andrea Postacchini" (Fermo, Italy), and Third Prize and a Special Prize for Creativity at the 2008 Long-Thibaud International Competition (Paris). As a soloist, he has performed with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National de Belgique, I Pomeriggi Musicale of Milan, Orchestre Royal Chambre de Wallonie (Belgium), Binghamton Philharmonic and Asheville Symphony. Mr. Bendix-Balgley has also played his own version of The Star-Spangled Banner for solo violin in front of 39,000 fans at the Pittsburgh Pirates Opening Day at PNC Park. As a chamber musician, Mr. Bendix-Balgley has performed on a North American tour with the Miro String Quartet, as first violinist of the Munich-based Athlos String Quartet, which won a Special Prize at the 2009 Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Competition (Berlin), and throughout Europe. His Pittsburgh debut recital in January 2012 was named the "Best Classical Concert of 2012" by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He has also appeared at numerous festivals in Europe and North America, including Verbier, Sarasota, ChamberFest Cleveland, Brevard and Chamber Music Connects the World (Kronberg, Germany). Noah Bendix-Balgley graduated from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and the Munich Hochschule. His principal teachers were Mauricio Fuks, Christoph Poppen and Ana Chumachenco. In his spare time, he enjoys playing klezmer music. Mr. Bendix-Balgley plays a Cremonese violin made in 1732 by Carlo Bergonzi. GRETCHEN VAN HOESEN has been Principal Harpist of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra since 1977 and has appeared as soloist with the orchestra on subscription concerts and on tour under conductors André Previn, Lorin Maazel, James Conlon, Zdnek Macal, Sergiu Comissiona, Pinchas Zukerman and Manfred Honeck. She has been active in the performance of new music, giving the New York and Pittsburgh premieres of Alberto Ginastera's Harp Concerto, the Pittsburgh premiere of Witold Lutoslawski's Double Concerto for Oboe, Harp and Chamber Orchestra with her husband, former Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Co-Principal Oboist James Gorton, the United States premiere of Suite Concertante for Solo Harp and Orchestra by Manuel Moreno-Buendia in San Antonio, Texas, the North American premiere of Concert Piece, Op. 65 for Oboe/English Horn, Two Harps and Orchestra by Eugene Goossens, and the world premiere of Sir André Previn's Concerto for Harp. Gretchen Van Hoesen has concertized all over the world and was selected to perform in the Super World Orchestra in Japan, an ensemble made up of key musicians from around the globe. She has been a featured soloist at American Harp Society National Conferences in Boston, Pittsburgh, San Antonio, Denton, Washington, D.C. and Fredonia, and served as a judge for National Competitions of the American Harp Society and as President of the organization's Pittsburgh Chapter. Gretchen Van Hoesen graduated from the Juilliard School, where she earned bachelor's and master's degrees in harp as a scholarship student of Marcel Grandjany and Susann McDonald. She is also a graduate of the Eastman School of Music Preparatory Department with highest honors in piano and harp, where she was a student of Eileen Malone. She studied further with Gloria Agostini. Her recordings include Lullabies and Night Songs on the Caedmon label, Pavanes, Pastorales, and Serenades for Oboe and Harp, and Concertos for Harp and Orchestra, both on Boston Records, and Breath of Heaven, A Christmas Collection with soprano Sarah Botkin. Ms. Van Hoesen is a faculty member of Carnegie Mellon and Duquesne universities and also maintains a private teaching studio at her home in Pittsburgh. ANNE MARTINDALE WILLIAMS has enjoyed a successful career as Principal Cellist of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra since 1979. Throughout her tenure with the orchestra, she has often been featured as soloist both in Pittsburgh and on tour in New York's Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall, and collaborated with such guest artists as Yehudi Menuhin, André Previn, the Emerson Quartet, Lynn Harrell, Joshua Bell, Gil Shaham and Pinchas Zukerman in numerous chamber music performances. Mrs. Williams made her London debut performing Dvorák's Cello Concerto with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, André Previn conducting. She is on the faculty of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, and also appears regularly in solo and chamber music performances in America and Europe. Mrs. Williams has performed at many of America's prestigious summer music festivals, and given master classes throughout the country, including the Curtis Institute, Manhattan School of Music, New World Symphony in Miami, Aspen, Credo at Oberlin College and Masterworks Festival. Anne Martindale Williams is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Orlando Cole. Her Tecchler cello was made in Rome in 1701. Producer: James Gorton Recording engineers: Riccardo Schulz, Sang Mok Lee Assistant engineers: Rosey Denton, Weichao Kong Engineering assistants: Michael Cai, Tristan Marino, Tobias Glover Editing and Mastering: James Gorton, Riccardo Schulz Recording dates: July 17-20, 2013 Recording location: School of Music Recording Studio, College of Fine Arts, Carnegie Mellon University Photography: Alisa Milnthorp Graphic design: Deborah Cavrak Special thanks: Denis Colwell and Carnegie Mellon University Joseph Haydn Trio for Violin, Cello and Harp in G major, H. XV:15 (1732-1809) Allegro Andante Finale: Allegro moderato Reynaldo Hahn À Chloris for Violin and Harp (1875-1947) Adrian Shaposhnikov Sonata for Violin and Harp (1888-1967) Andante con moto Menuetto: Allegretto Allegro molto Henriette Renié Trio for Violin, Cello and Harp (1875-1956) Allegro risoluto Scherzo: Vivace scherzando Andante Finale: Allegro Carlos Gardel Por una Cabeza for Violin, Cello and Harp (1890-1935) arr. J.G. Miller Early in 1790, the London publisher John Bland ventured to Vienna, where he sought to enter into arrangements with that city's leading composers, including Mozart, before making a special trip to Esterhazy Palace in western Hungary to visit Joseph Haydn (1732-1809). Haydn contracted with the publisher to provide three trios, and in April he delivered the pieces (H. XV:15-17) to Bland, who announced their publication in London on June 28, 1790. The trios, originally for flute, cello and keyboard, are often performed with violin instead of flute, and in this case with harp instead of keyboard. The G major Trio opens with a little gesture in the harp before the violin presents the first movement's ingratiating main theme; the second subject is a leaping motive with a familial resemblance to the opening idea. The development embraces several thematic fragments from the exposition before a full recapitulation of the earlier materials rounds out the movement. The Andante is at once simple and sophisticated, seeming antitheses that Haydn effortlessly balanced in his mature works, with it's three-part form (A-B-A) given added expressive resonance by the second section becoming a free, minor-key development of the op