Birth of a Trio (Circa 1977)

The new entry of the complete Dvorak piano trios in the current record catalog also brought about the founding of a brand new ensemble under the euphoneously proper name of Concordia Trio. The careers of the three eminent artists that form the Trio and the circumstances of their coming together seemed a more interesting subject that a rehashing of some pseudery-scholarly truisms about Dvorak and his chamber music, so we picked up the phone and arranged to get together for a chat.

Violinist Albert Markov, who has been in this country since December 1975, served as host. He was assisted by his wife, Marina, formerly a violinist with the Bolshoi Opera, currently with the New York City Opera orchestra. Also attending was one of his two sons, both of whom are studying at the Juilliard School -- and the family dog. When Markov was leaving the Soviet Union he was allowed to take his dog with him, but had to leave his violin behind!

Cellist Albert Catell, an earlier arrival to the U.S. (1953), was already there. We were shortly joined by the Trio's Milton Kaye, accompanied by his vivacious actress wife. How did all three come together as an ensemble and decide on Dvorak as their initial venture? Shortly after Markov's arrival to this country the three were introduced to each other by another Russian violinist, Lev Grozovsky, who remembered Markov's solo appearance in Riga some 10 years earlier. The seeds of personal friendship and music collaboration were sown with the three future Trio members meeting informally to play through some standard piano trios.

Listen to Dvorak's Piano Trio No. 2, 1st Mvt: Allegro moderato

Personal and professional ties were strengthened when pianist Kaye, who had already concertized and toured with Catell, also officiated at the piano for Markov's U.S. recital debut in New York City's Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center.  It is Russian concert etiquette to return the audience's applause by applauding back. At his recital debut. in this country, Markov did it with music. He played his own arrangement of Gershwin tunes in "Porgy and Bess Rhapsody" which was published in Russia before he left the country.

Kaye is a distinguished concert pianist who soloed with the NBC, New York Philharmonic, and Philadelphia orchestras, while also touring abroad under U.S. State Department auspices. He began his career as the staff pianist at radio station WOR in New York City before WWII when live music on radio was the rule rather than the exception. 

During his WOR days Kaye received a long distance phone call from violist Jascha Heifetz who needed a pianist for his impending Armed Forces tour in North Africa and Europe, followed by a few USA dates, a Bell Telephone Hour appearance and finally a highly successful Decca record.

A few days after the phone call, Kaye met Heifetz in a New York City hotel room. On the piano was a huge pile of music. Heifetz picked up something at random, placed it on the piano rack and proceeded to play through it with Kaye. Apparently satisfied after a page or two, Heifetz stopped and asked Kaye to take the rest of the music to look over.  “Before going on tour, we shall play each piece through once and after that I expect it to be perfect every time, although we might not play some of the material for weeks between performances." Then he added, somewhat mitigatingly, “The reason why I set such rigid standard is whatever I ask of you, I expect twice as much from myself.”

 Ever the perfectionist, serious and uncompromising in his approach, "Heifetz would never stoop down, make concessions or shortchange an audience," Kaye continued to reminisce. "Whether he played in barracks canteens, or in Rome or Naples opera houses on that tour, the enlisted personnel, his approach was always the same: even when we performed in a field hospital for paraplegics, we still played the same standard one hour recital program that he would perform for musically most sophisticated audience -- needless to say, with the same matchless precision that is a Heifetz trademark.'' 

Originally from the Lithuanian city of Vilna, cellist Catell went in the early 1920's to Germany for study in Leipzig and Berlin with, among others, Emanuel Feuermann. While still a teenager, he began his professional career as the principal cello with the prestigious Dresden Philharmonic.

He then went to Poland where he worked as a conductor and teacher, recorded some staples from the cello repertory and introduced Bloch's Schelomo in Poland in the early 1930's, within a year of Piatigorsky’s performance of the work in Berlin. Violinist Bronislaw Huberman invited Catell to come as principal cello with the Palestine, later Israel, Philharmonic, then being formed and prepared by William Steinberg for debut under Arturo Toscanini.

Catell was almost deprived of his opening solo in Rossini's William Tell overture when Toscanini decreed that it should be played by three cellos in unison. Before the next rehearsal, Catell asked in plaintively dulcet tones, "Maestro, three cellos out of tune with each other when one has problems enough to stay on pitch?'' Toscanini, himself a cellist before taking up the baton, smilingly agreed: "One cello" and Catell's solo was saved.

But isn't Markov in the wrong league with those two consummate ensemble players? Markov soloed with orchestras but never, or hardly ever, sat in one. A prize winner in both the Queen Elizabeth of Belgium and Moscow's Tchaikovsky competition, he was also a distinguished teacher in the Soviet Union. In addition to his career as a concertizing virtuoso, he is continuing his teaching activities on the faculty of Yale University and New York City's Mannes College of Music. The role of the absent-minded professor fits him perfectly as, for example, when he left his violin in the back seat of a cab after returning from the airport following a concert. It was returned to him the very next day by the honest cabbie, Leslie Sapolsky, who in the words of the New York Post headline “Finds Fiddle, Gives it Bach''.

"Friends," warned the other two Concordians, "Markov won't do: he is a virtuoso concert soloist,'' implying that he is no chamber musician, although he has done considerable amount of chamber ensemble playing and recording in U.S.S.R.  Markov added fuel to his detractors' arguments, saying "Piano trios pose special problems, different from an all string ensemble such as a string quartet for instance: the piano is a solo instrument.”  Kaye complements the discussion from the other side of the spectrum: “So often in a trio the string players play defensively,'' or the piano has to be subdued, then adds enthusiastically, "But you can't drown out Markov or Catell. When you have fine musicians in an ensemble, they bring an added dimension to the total concept of the work. We wanted to get away from the usual chamber music concept: very respectful, terrible serious, with no individuality and; oh, so easily dull.  We want to make it exciting and personal.”  These are the reasons for which they chose Dvorak's music which is colorful, dramatic and full of excitement. They kept those characteristics in mind, heart, ear and fingers, rather than approaching their performance just with respect.

Listen to Dvorak's Piano Trio No. 4 "Dumky", 1st mvt: 

All the Concordians seem to be in enthusiastic accord on these points and are already excitedly contemplating completion of Dvorak's chamber music with piano by recording his piano quartets and quintets while also preparing a nostalgic bouquet of encore tidbits for trio. Each of them makes their share of the arrangements even when standard trio versions already exist because they find them, in Markov's words, "Too busy; everybody plays all the time without rest.'' They want their music to breathe -- and be alive.