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Goucher Faculty Record Ravel and Shostakovich with the Gemini Piano Trio
By Eliot Grasso
The Gemini Piano Trio is comprised of violinist Sheng-Tsung Wang, pianist Hsiu-Hui Wang, and cellist Benjamin Myers; the latter two are among Goucher's music department faculty. Fortunately for the Goucher community, this Trio is celebrating their newest recording: a disc featuring Ravel's Piano Trio in A minor and Shostakovich's Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor.
The Gemini Trio functions comparably to a living cell, and the individual instruments its organelles. For a cell to sustain and thrive, its constituent parts must work cooperatively, make compromises and be totally aware of what is transpiring around it. Pianist, cellist, and violinist play together in such a finely tuned balance that each minute sonic alteration made by one is immediately detected by the others.
On the cover is a tastefully manipulated, purple-tinted leaf covered with dew. This attractive photograph is complemented by a large, white, intellectual typeface. The liner notes by Benjamin Myers and Hsiu-Hui Wang provide some fascinatingly original insights into the Ravel and Shostakovich trios. The Gemini Trio turns each opus into a story and realizes a latent program derived from overall structure, melodic turns, and subtle variations in mood and harmony.
This recording epitomizes the idiom of chamber music. Each note and phrase of every movement is treated with utmost care, and great attention is given to the details and nuances presented by each piece. These pieces are played with such seamless continuity that the barlines dissolve before the listener's very ears. All musicality aside, each member of the Gemini Piano Trio is a virtuoso in his or her own right. As Dr. Wang and Dr. Myers eloquently discuss in the liner notes, "...it [the second movement of the Ravel Trio] is one of the few virtuoso movements in the piano trio repertoire. Each instrument is stretched to the limits of its technique...the violinist must alternate left hand pizzicato with bowing in a rapid syncopated rhythm...the piano is constantly required to make enormous jumps across the keyboard, accurately grabbing fistfuls of thick chords on the way." There are fragments of both these piano trios that are so difficult that they are easily concerto-worthy, but the Gemini Trio makes every passage sound effortless from start to finish.
Music department chair Dr. Lisa Weiss has heard the Gemini Trio play live on several occasions. When interviewed about her thoughts on the piano trio and their standing in the department, Dr. Weiss remarked: "I am so delighted to have both Hsiu-Hui and Ben on our faculty. They are both musicians of the highest caliber and are also excellent teachers.
"The Gemini Trio plays as one without sacrificing each player's individuality, and they have an appealing, outgoing personality as a group; their playing is polished, expansive, and always tasteful. They are obviously a very serious ensemble and their continued exploration of diverse repertoire is admirable.
"As Goucher faculty, Hsiu-Hui and Ben have definitely made their mark and are upholding the Goucher teaching ideal, which is to say: they are nurturing, compassionate individuals who care deeply about their students' individual personalities and situations. At the same time, they expect hard work and disciplined practicing from all of their students and hold each student to the highest musical standards. We are fortunate to have them at Goucher." -- The Quindecim Online, Goucher College, Maryland
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