Hermitage Piano Trio at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, October 11. 2025. (credit: Sally Verrando)_800x450
CONCERT REVIEW:
Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth
October 11, 2025
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth,
Fort Worth, Texas – USA
Hermitage Piano Trio (Misha Keylin, violin; Sergey Antonov, cello; Ilya Kazantsev, piano).
Mikhail GLINKA: Trio Pathéique in D Minor (1828)
Isaac ALBÉNIZ: “Granada” from Suite española, Op. 47
Manuel de FALLA: Siete canciones populares españolas
Joaquin TURINA: Piano Trio No. 2 in B Minor, Op. 76
Mariano PERELLÓ: Tres Impresiones (1922)
Gregory Sullivan Isaacs | 17 OCT 2025
Attending the recent concert by the Hermitage Piano Trio, presented by the Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth, it became immediately clear how much it matters when an ensemble is a true, permanent unit—one that has played and toured together for years. Even a group of excellent musicians assembled for a specific concert, who all know each other as well as the repertoire, cannot duplicate the camaraderie demonstrated by the Hermitage Piano Trio on Saturday afternoon.
The trio members are all distinguished soloists in their own right. Violinist Misha Keylin has toured to forty-five countries spanning five continents. Cellist Sergey Antonov surprised the world when he was one of the youngest cellists ever awarded the gold medal at the quadrennial International Tchaikovsky Competition. Pianist Ilya Kazantsev won first prize at the Nikolai Rubinstein International Competition (France), and he garnered other top prizes at the International Chopin Competition (Russia) and the World Piano Competition (USA).
The program was mostly drawn from their recent CD “Spanish Impressions,” featuring music composed by early 20th-century Spanish composers. The program included Mikhail Glinka’s Trio Pathéique in D Minor, Isaac Albéniz’s “Granada” from Suite española, Op. 47, Manuel de Falla’s Siete canciones populares españolas (“Seven Popular Spanish Songs”), Joaquin Turina’s Piano Trio No. 2 in B Minor, Op. 76, and Mariano Perelló’s Tres Impresiones.
Throughout the performance, the group captured the elusive spirit of Spanish music. Antonov delivered an exceptionally rich cello sound, with great depth, and used a vibrato that changed with the expressive demands of the music. As the only other string player, Keylin had a nearly impossible job trying to match it, especially considering the difference between the two instruments – one a baritone and the other a soprano.
But it was Kazantsev, at the piano, that carefully knitted the two very different sonorities together. He always understood that music is never stagnant; it is always going somewhere. Even short musical passages must lead the listener from one moment to the next. His work was subtle and never called attention to itself. But once you realized what Kazantsev was doing so naturally, it was quite remarkable to hear him work his magic throughout the afternoon.
While technical brilliance, which many players are eager to display, was certainly present, with some impressive flourishes. But these displays never once called attention to themselves. Instead, such technical flashes were just a simple matter of playing what the composer wrote and matching the required style. That isn’t easy to achieve.
It would be futile to discuss each work on the program, pointing out what an excellent afternoon of music making the Hermitage delivered on this piece or the other. All were terrific. But the real treat was hearing them bring out the difference between the composer’s distinctive voices. We tend to lump Spanish music into a box, with cross rhythms and modal harmonies. Not so here. Albéniz and Turina presented two very different versions of the genre, while Glinka’s “russianized” approach was a contrast to both of them. ■
Readers can hear some of these selections from their CD on the Hermitage Piano Trio’s website.
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About the author:
Gregory Sullivan Isaacs is a Dallas-based composer, conductor, and journalist. He is also a coach and teacher with a private studio.
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This entry was posted in Chamber & Recital on October 17, 2025 by Gregory Sullivan Isaacs.RECENT POSTS