Anne Gastinel / Nicholas Angelich / Gil Shaham / Andreas Ottensamer / Frankfurt Radio Symphony / Paavo Järvi BEETHOVEN Triple Concerto - Trio Op. 11

...the special feature of this work is its highly individual form: it’s a concertante work, but it’s also genuine chamber music. This mixture of genres, this duality, isn’t always easy to handle: Gil, Nicholas and I form a trio, but one in which each member takes on a solo part. There’s a real balance to be found, which is harder than when there are only two soloists – as in the Brahms Double Concerto, for example. All through the work, there’s continual inter- action between the soloists, and between the trio and the orchestra. 

This concerto can easily become just a superposition of talents if the three soloists are not as ‘connected’ as they are in chamber music. I’ve often thought that the ideal solution was to ask an existing trio to perform it. The challenge of this recording was to form a trio that could play a concertante work with an orchestra, and to create a group that would function naturally and intuitively. I strongly felt that was what was needed. That’s why I immediately thought of Nicholas and Gil. Nicholas, whom I’ve known for a very long time now, has the rare quality of being both a great soloist and a great chamber musician. He always listens to his partners, and his playing is magni cent. As to Gil, whom I admire and whose playing I really love, he’s someone who is characterised by perpetual exchange and mobility; he too is a great listener, so generous and open to other people’s ideas that it’s sheer delight to play with him. We didn’t know each other, except from hearing recordings or concerts, but things came together quite naturally. The three of us met in Paris to play through the work before meeting the orchestra, about a month and a half before the concerts. That rehearsal is still a wonderful memory: everything was so natural, so self-evident between us! We all felt the same thing, that very spontaneous reaction when you make music together, you phrase together . . . That’s the magic of rst meetings, sometimes. 

The orchestra is also very present in this piece; its part is very important. It doesn’t just ac- company the soloists. We’re dealing here with a real Beethoven symphony, featuring a trio of soloists that reacts to the orchestra in a permanent give-and-take... (Anne Gastinel)