Moores School of Music Faculty Recital: Bayou City Trio
Thursday, September 23, 2021
7:30 pm - 9:30 pm
THE GROUP: Houston is home to one of the most vibrant and energetic music scenes in the country. Emerging from this surfeit of musical talent, violinist Chavdar Parashkevov, (Houston Grand Opera and Houston Ballet), cellist Louis-Marie Fardet (Houston Symphony Orchestra), and pianist/composer Brian Suits (University of Houston’s Moores School of Music) have joined their virtuosic, eclectic skills to form Houston’s most exciting new chamber music group, Bayou City Trio. The combination of Parashkevov’s sparkling, immaculate brilliance, Fardet’s rich, lavish tone and searching intellect and Suits’s quick fingers and diverse musical interests, make for a group with undeniable synergy. Sidelined by the scourge of the pandemic, the group first performed several concerts together in 2019. They now return with a vengeance, committed to performing captivating works, by top-drawer composers, with passion, authority, grace and zeal.
THE
WORKS:
One
hundred
years
ago
in
Paris,
a
group
of
six
composers
allied
themselves,
vowing
to
create
and
preserve
a
distinctly
French
musical
language,
unsullied
by
the
influence
of
Wagner.
“Les
Six”
included
Francis
Poulenc,
Darius
Milhaud
and
others.
Germaine
Tailleferre
distinguished
herself
as
the
only
female
member;
her
Piano
Trio
(rev.
1977)
is
a
re-discovered
gem,
remarkable
for
its
no-nonsense
elegance,
beauty,
and
insouciance
-
and
this
performance,
informed
and
corrected
according
to
recent
scholarship,
will
at
last
feature
the
work
as
Tailleferre
intended
it.
With
three
out
of
four
movements
qualifying
as
(more
or
less)
blazingly
fast,
the
C
minor
Piano
Trio
of
Felix
Mendelssohn,
Op.
66,
is
famous
as
a
vehicle
for
hair-raising
virtuosity.
Beyond
that,
however,
it
boasts
exquisite
melodic
writing;
the
combination
of
these
two
elements
is,
predictably,
irresistible.
Pianist Brian Suits also composes, and in 2019 he composed a Piano Trio for this very group. A lover of jazz, pop, and all manner of folk music, Suits only managed to keep his trio serious for two movements, with the third movement breaking free as a jazzy toe-tapper in 5/4 meter.
- Location
- Dudley Recital Hall and Virtual Livestream
- Cost
- Free event, no RSVP required. Livestream link will be added at a later date.
- Contact
- Brian
Suits
bjsuits@central.uh.edu