Grand Piano Series rings in year with global superstars

The birth of a world-renowned piano trio doesn’t normally require lockdown together.

That Grand Piano Series’ first chamber ensemble of the new year did so without coming to blows is a testament to their musical team dynamic.

Shortly after forming in 2019, the Czech violin/cello/piano Trio Bohémo entered the pandemic living together in the same big house. They emerged as an award winner celebrated for “precision, dedication and a spark of magic” (Aulakonzerte Gӧttingen).

Today, they’re fresh from capturing prize after prize in worldwide chamber music competitions and have graced stages from the Vienna Musikverein to London’s Wigmore Hall. Their current American tour comes on the heels of a debut CD that’s already receiving international kudos.

These three remarkable musicians launch Grand Piano Series’ new year with three iconic composers and three distinct soundscapes: Haydn’s classical perfection, Smetana’s wistful tenderness and Brahms’ Romantic lyricism.

Next up, on Valentine’s Day eve, is a firecracker pianist whom critics note for her “powerhouse sound, forceful musical personality, and sheer virtuosity.” Exhibiting what The Guardian called “a virtuosity which seemed both joyful and natural,” Van Cliburn International Piano Competition 2022 silver medalist Anna Geniushene channels virtuosic transcriptions from superstar pianist/composers of the past — from Handel’s magnificent Chaconne to Verdi’s beloved operatic melodies and Stravinsky’s blockbuster ballet The Firebird.

March brings a star-studded performance including series director Milana Strezeva, a founding member of the award-winning Manhattan Piano Trio. Strezeva joins one of the biggest names in chamber music today — the Prague-based Pavel Haas Quartet — in an all-Dvořák program featuring two masterpieces that fuse his native Czech folklore with the formal perfection he inherited from Brahms and Beethoven.
BBC Music Magazine feted the Czech ensemble on its 20th anniversary by naming it one of the magazine’s 10 greatest string quartets of all time. The group has won five Gramophone Classical Music Awards for recordings including Dvořák trios, quartets and quintets.

Trio Bohémo will perform Jan. 23 at 3 p.m. and Jan. 24 at 7:30 p.m. Grand Piano Series Lecturer-in-Residence Magdalena Baczewska will hold an online pre-concert lecture on the piano trio Jan. 7 from 4 to 5 p.m.

Anna Geniushene performs Feb. 13 at 7:30 p.m., preceded by Baczewska’s preconcert talk on the piano virtuoso Jan. 30 at 4 p.m.

The Pavel Haas Quartet with Milana Strezeva will perform March 6 at 3 and 7:30 p.m., with a preconcert talk on Antonín Dvořák’s “American Sound” Feb. 20 from 4 to 5 p.m.

All performances take place at Artis—Naples, 5833 Pelican Bay Blvd., Naples.

Purchase single tickets at $59 at grandpianoseries.org or artisnaples.org. For assistance, call Grand Piano Series at 469-333-3231 or Artis—Naples at 239-597-1900.