Kashperova, Leokadiya – Piano Trio in A minor op. posth.

Description

Leokadiya Kashperova (1872–1940), hitherto consigned to a footnote in musical history as Stravinsky’s piano teacher, is undergoing rediscovery. A double graduate of the St Petersburg Conservatoire, she emerged as a virtuoso pianist and composer in the romantic tradition. She was associated with some of the great musicians of her day, including Balakirev and Auer. She performed in both Germany and the UK in the 1900s, but her career petered out after 1920. The pencil manuscript of the Piano Trio in A minor (c1930–40) was discovered in 2019 in the Russian National Museum of Music, Moscow. The work has been edited for performance by Graham Griffiths in close collaboration with members of the Gould Piano Trio, who gave the world première in 2020. A four-movement work of 28 minutes’ duration and in full-blooded Romantic idiom, it joins the recently republished Cello Sonatas 1 & 2 in the Kashperova Edition.