Stolen Music Linos Piano Trio

• Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918):
• 1 Debussy: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un Faune, L. 86 (Arr. for piano Trio) 10:29
• Paul Dukas (1865 - 1935):
• 2 Dukas: L'apprenti sorcier (Arr. for Piano Trio) 12:29
• Arnold Schönberg (1874 - 1951): Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4:
• 3 Schönberg: Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4: I. Sehr langsam (arr. for Piano Trio) 06:31
• 4 Schönberg: Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4: II. Breiter (Arr. for piano Trio) 06:05
• 5 Schönberg: Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4: III. Schwer betont (arr. for Piano Trio) 02:21
• 6 Schönberg: Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4: IV. Sehr breit und langsam (Arr. for Piano Trio) 09:57
• 7 Schönberg: Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4: V. Sehr ruhig (Arr. for Piano Trio) 04:29
• Maurice Ravel (1875 - 1937):
• 8 Ravel: La Valse, M. 72 (Arr. for Piano Trio) 12:44
• Total Runtime 01:05:05

Info for Stolen Music

With orchestral concerts on hold for the foreseeable future, the Linos Piano Trio’s Stolen Music project takes inspiration from earlier times and brings distilled versions of great orchestral works to smaller spaces.

Inspiration • The combination of piano, violin and cello has, through the ages, acted as a (pre-digital) kind of virtuality, simulating music written for larger ensembles. This combination was chosen by Beethoven as an alternative instrumentation of his Second Symphony, allowing the work to be heard and played beyond its premiere.

Throughout the 19th Century the piano trio enjoyed a second life outside the genre’s masterpieces: transcriptions of symphonic music. Its vast sound-colour possibilities conjured the richness of an orchestra, while its portability enlivened intimate salons.

We have been fascinated by this aspect of the trio genre since the Linos Piano Trio’s beginning in 2007, our first performance being Schönberg’s Verklärte Nacht in the arrangement by Eduard Steuermann (endorsed by the composer).

Since 2016 we have taken a further step inspired by Stravinsky’s notion of creative stealing: to take something and make it one’s own. We have “stolen” works from the orchestral repertoire such as Ravel’s La Valse, and Dukas’ Sorcerer’s Apprentice and performed them widely in our own arrangements.

This process is both collaborative and creative, taking weeks (and months) to get inside the score and experiment with all the possibilities. It goes beyond assigning parts to each instrument: often requiring creative solutions to achieve a specific texture, changes in figuration and ornamentation to better suit each instrument, or taking inspiration from the piano trio writing of the same composer.

The result is a fully reimagined version as if the composer had conceived the piece for the piano trio.

STOLEN MUSIC will be the first recording of this ongoing project, compiling the highlights from the Linos Piano Trio’s existing arrangements, paired with the inspiration for the trio’s founding: Schönberg’s Verklärte Nacht.

Linos Piano Trio

Linos Piano Trio
“Reinventing the repertoire”: it may seem like a tall order, but this is how the Linos Piano Trio describes the philosophy at the heart of its music making. This reinvention comes about in two ways. The first is through the musicians’ interpretations of the core repertoire; they look at each piece as if it were newly composed, setting conventions aside and bringing it to light in a fresh and personal way. The second is by extending the breadth of the repertoire in order to expand the range of works listeners are traditionally presented in piano trio recitals, be that through commissioning new music, their own arrangements of pieces written for different types of ensembles, or through championing unjustly neglected works.

First Prize and Audience Prize winner of the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition 2015, the Linos Piano Trio is increasingly recognised as one of Europe’s most creative and dynamic trios.

Drawing on the rich and varied cultural and musical backgrounds of its members, which encompass five nationalities, as well as specialisms in historically informed performance and new music, the Linos Piano Trio possesses a colourful and distinctive musical voice. Praised for its “slow-burning, gripping performance” by The Strad, and an “astounding performance” by the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung, the trio’s reputation has taken it to prestigious venues worldwide including the Barbican and Wigmore Halls, Melbourne Recital Centre, Muziekgebouw Eindhoven, Holzhausenschlösschen in Frankfurt, Théâtre Saint-Louis in France, and the György Ligeti Saal in Graz.

Founded in October 2007, the Linos Piano Trio studied at the Guildhall and then at the Musikhochschule Hannover with Oliver Wille and Markus Becker. The ensemble has also received the guidance of Sir András Schiff, Peter Cropper, Ferenc Rados, Rainer Schmidt and Eberhard Feltz. The trio first came to prominence in the Tunnell Trust Showcase for Young Musicians, and in 2014 was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Albert and Eugenie Frost Prize for an outstanding ensemble.

The Linos Piano Trio recorded the complete Piano Trios by C.P.E. Bach to celebrate the 300th anniversary of his birth, and the CDs will be released by CAvi-music this summer. In 2016 the trio embarked on its current, on-going project, ‘Stolen Music’, a rapturously received series of creative arrangements of orchestral masterpieces such as Wagner’s Prelude to Tristan and Isolde, and Dukas’ Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

The Linos Piano Trio recently made their debut appearance in Italy, and their busy 2019-20 season includes numerous performances across the UK as well as concerts in France and Germany.

Since 2017 they have held the position of ‘Artists-in-Residence’ at Trinity Laban Conservatoire in London.

Linos (Λῖνος) was a celebrated musician in Greek mythology. The son of Apollo, Linos received from his father the three-stringed lute, and became known as the inventor of new melodies, lyric songs, and eloquent speech. As one of the original demi-gods of music, Linos had many pupils, most famously Heracles and his brother Orpheus.

Booklet for Stolen Music