Eroica Trio, Vienna Symphony, Play Beethoven Triple Concerto At Jorgensen

The enchanting Grammy-nominated Eroica Trio will play the Beethoven "Triple Concerto" with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, directed by man-of-the-hour Fabio Luisi, Tuesday, Nov. 15, at 7:30 p.m. at Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts. The Vienna Symphony Orchestra makes its debut in Storrs at the close of a 10-day U.S. tour, repeating a Lincoln Center program from the preceding evening. In the second half, the orchestra will play the pastoral Brahms Symphony No. 2.

Glenn Stanley, Beethoven scholar, frequent author of Carnegie Hall program notes and professor of music history at UConn, will share insights about the composers and the program in a pre-concert talk at 6:45 p.m.

The Vienna Symphony Orchestra is as sustainable to the Austrian spirit as its mountain spring water and is known in the music world for its signature orchestral sound. It has premiered works such as Bruckner's Ninth Symphony, Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand and Schmidt's The Book with Seven Seals. It has been shaped under the batons of Bruno Walter, Richard Strauss, Wilhelm Furtwangler, Herbert von Karajan and Wolfgang Sawallisch, and has enjoyed guest conductors such as Leonard Bernstein, Zubin Mehta and Lorin Maazel.

Since 2005 the Vienna's chief conductor has been Fabio Liusi, who this fall took the helm as principal conductor of the Metropolitan Opera and has served as music director of the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, since 2010. Mr. Luisi will also direct the Zurich Opera in the 2012-13 season.

During the 2011-12 season, he makes his debut at the Teatro alla Scala with Massenet's Manon. At the Metropolitan Opera, he is conducting new productions of Don Giovanni and Siegfried in 2011 and Manon and La Traviata in the spring of 2012.

The stunning Eroica Trio, named for Beethoven's Third Symphony, is at home with the concerto for violin, cello and piano in C major, having performed it more than any other trio in the world. "There is an edge of the seat intensity to every note they produce," boasts The New York Times.

As the official representative for New York's Carnegie Hall, the trio opened the "Distinctive Debuts" series at Weill Recital Hall. Eroica also made a successful Lincoln Center debut and has toured the United States, Europe and Asia.

It has released eight recordings, drawing critical kudos and multiple Grammy Award nominations. Its recording of the Beethoven "Triple" with the Prague Chamber Orchestra landed the piece on Billboard's Top 20 for the first time in recording history. Eroica's performance of the "Triple Concerto" on German television was broadcast throughout Europe. The trio is committed to sharing its music widely and plays in schools, master classes, homeless shelters, senior centers and prisons. It has performed in summer festivals at the Hollywood Bowl, Aspen, Mostly Mozart, Ravinia and Spoleto, Italy.

The Eroica will be back to Jorgensen for a solo performance Feb. 14, 2012.

Beethoven's "Triple Concerto" has sometimes been overshadowed by the composer's other concertos, but critics have agreed in more recent times that it is a highly original, forward-looking work. Beethoven wrote it in 1803-04 for his pupil, the Archduke Rudolph, who performed the piano solo in the premiere.

The last piece on the program, the Brahms Symphony No. 2 in D Major, marks the composer's freer form after 15 years spent under the pressure of his first symphony; he composed the second in just four months. Desiring to do justice to the musical form of the master, Brahms matches the intensity and richness of Beethoven's dramatic expression and introduces the simple, lyric German lied as a device.

Jorgensen Center for the Performing Arts is located at 2132 Hillside Road on the UConn campus in Storrs. Tickets are $40, $37 and $33, with some discounts available. For tickets and information, call the Box Office 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Mon-Fri at 860.486.4226, or order online at: jorgensen.uconn.edu. Free, convenient parking is available across the street in the North Garage.

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