Monday night we went to Ravinia (a lovely outdoor concert venue in the north Chicago suburbs) to hear the Beaux Arts Trio (Daniel Hope's three-piece band
) on their farewell tour. It was a gorgeous evening, sunny and dry. We had a picnic dinner on the lawn and a nice bottle of wine, and then went into the Martin Theater for the performance.
Daniel fan-girl that I am, we had third row center seats. Aurally, we were sitting close enough that we were hearing the sound from the instruments directly, not through the speakers. They were about as close as Daniel and Stewart were when we were in Savannah.
They started with Dvorak's Dumky Trio, which is a very unconventional six-movement (with each movement in a different key) piece full of Dvorak's usual invocations of folk music. It was great to watch them play, and they sounded fantastic; I own the Beaux Arts Trio recording of this piece, and it was really fun to see and hear live. The way the three of them communicate and play off of each other was just fascinating.
They then played a short, very modern minimalist piece composed for the Trio by Gyorgy Kurtag, and then Ravel's Trio. I have never been too much of a fan of the Ravel Trio, but they really brought it to life for me! Having the strings right.in.my.face really changed my experience of the piece; the recording I have of it has the piano miked higher than the strings, so the energy and texture of the strings doesn't really come through on the recording.
Then they played two Beethoven movements as encores (I kept asking my husband when they were going to play Message In A Bottle
): the final movement of Piano Trio Opus 1, and an adagio that I can't remember. I loves me my Beethoven, and they were clearly having a great time, so it was wonderful.
I am looking forward to the next time I see Daniel perform (if we're all lucky, it'll be in Savannah in March!).
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