Icicle Creek Trio CD

Icicle Creek Piano Trio: Ravel and Schubert

Jennifer Caine, violin
Sally Singer, cello
Oksana Ezhokina, piano
now Volta Piano Trio

Artist's Website
Icicle Creek Trio CD

Icicle Creek Piano Trio: Haydn, Turina and Shostakovich

Jennifer Caine, violin
Sally Singer, cello
Oksana Ezhokina, piano
now Volta Piano Trio

Volta Piano Trio CD

Volta Piano Trio

Jennifer Caine, violin
Sally Singer, cello
Oxana Ejokina, piano

Volta Piano Trio: Brahms - Schumann

"…a performance of such aching beauty I find myself at a loss for words to describe it."

--Jerry Dubins - Fanfare

"I wonder if the Pacific Northwest realizes how outstanding a piano trio they have in their midst."

--Huntley Dent - Fanfare

"Excellent performances by a true chamber ensemble of magnificent music. If you don't know the Clara Schumann G-Minor Trio, this is the perfect way to gain its acquaintance."

--Colin Clarke - Fanfare

    Johannes Brahms: Piano Trio inB Major, Op. 8
    1. Allegro con brio
    2. Scherzo: Allegro molto
    3. Adagio
    4> Allegro
    Clara Schumann: Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 17
    5. Allegro moderato
    6. Scherzo: Tempo di Menuetto
    7. Andante
    8. Allegretto

    CD reviews:

    "…a performance of such aching beauty I find myself at a loss for words to describe it."

    " I've heard more recordings and live performances of this work than I can count, but I don't think I've ever heard the opening cello solo played with such longing and intensity of feeling that the pain of it is palpable. The whole reading from beginning to end glows from within and vibrates on strings of celestial adulation. If you've ever encountered a performance of a familiar work so simultaneously poignant and thrilling that it gives you chills, you'll understand my reaction to the Volta Piano Trio's Brahms."

    "For the Brahms, without question, this receives my most urgent of recommendations."

    --Jerry Dubins - Fanfare

    "The Volta Trio is based in Washington State, and its three members—Jennifer Caine Provine, violin; Sally Singer Tuttle, cello; Oxana Ejokina, piano—transcend any identification as a regional group. They exhibit a high caliber of technical proficiency and musical instincts; their sonority is beautiful; and there's urgency and felt emotion in every measure."

    "The opening moments of this early-late masterpiece reveal a great deal about an ensemble as the piano is layered with the voices of the cello and then the violin. The minute you hear Ejokina's flow and confidence in the piano part, the Romantic warmth of Tuttle's cello, and the purity of line spun by Provine's violin, you know what this performance will be about."

    "I wonder if the Pacific Northwest realizes how outstanding a piano trio they have in their midst."

    --Huntley Dent - Fanfare

    "The sense of conversation between players in the long first movement is gloriously achieved; this, along with that textural awareness, gives the performance a palpable feeling of freshness."

    "Excellent performances by a true chamber ensemble of magnificent music. If you don't know the Clara Schumann G-Minor Trio, this is the perfect way to gain its acquaintance."

    --Colin Clarke - Fanfare

    Icicle Creek Piano Trio: Haydn/Turina/Shostakovich

    "Icicle Creek Piano Trio uses elegance of tone and grace of line and texture…" "transforming sweep of gossamer beauty."

    --Gramophone, May 2011

    "…this is simply one fantastic performance"

    --Fanfare

      Franz Josef Haydn: Piano Trio in E Major, Hob. XV: 28
      1. Allegro moderato
      2. Allegretto
      3. Finale: Allegro
      Joaquin Turina: Círculo - Fantasy for Piano, Violin, and Cello, Op. 91
      4. Amanecer
      5. Mediodía
      6. Crepúsculo
      Dmitri Shostakovich: Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67
      7. Andante - Moderato
      8. Allegro non troppo
      9. Largo
      10. Allegretto

    CD reviews:

    "It is a pleasure to be able to report the creation of an absolutely superb disc of chamber music -- and one, moreover, whose virtues lie in the realm of exceptional technique and insightful interpretation rather than in some unusual innovation. This is just one of those rare chamber music recordings that draw you in immediately with their sensitivity and execution

    "The trio does not flag in the most substantial work on the program, the (Shostakovich) Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67, increasingly looking like one of the absolute masterpieces of twentieth century chamber music. Violinist Jennifer Caine delivers superior tragic melody in the slow movement. Not a single detail is lost here. The sound, frequently a problem with small independent releases, comes from a studio in Seattle and does a good job of staying out of the performers' way. Highest possible recommendation."

    --James Manheim - AllMusic

    "Icicle’s spreading WARMTH – Shostakovich - Haydn - Turina

    "Shostakovich given a bittersweet emotional charge

    "Elegance absorbed in this new take on Shostakovich’s highly charged Trio"

    "Curiously tucked away on a disc that begins with innocuous Haydn and some marvelous Turina, the Icicle Creek Piano Trio uses elegance of tone and grace of line and texture to give the composer’s bitter music, written on the death of his close friend Ivan Sollertinsky, a bittersweet emotional charge."

    --Laurence Vittes - Gramophone Magazine

    "I’ve counted other versions of the Shostakovich among my favorites—those by the Kempf, Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson, Jupiter Trios, and an Erato recording with Repin, Berezovsky, and Yablonsky—but this is simply one fantastic performance, and it would earn my strongest recommendation even if the Shostakovich were the only work on the disc. But it’s not. The Turina is wonderful too, in different ways of course, and the Haydn is given a polished and spirited reading. Con Brio’s latest Icicle Creek Piano Trio album is a must for all chamber music lovers."

    --Jerry Dubins - Fanfare

    Icicle Creek Piano Trio: Ravel/Schubert

    "This is one album that is absolutely worth having."

    --American Record Guide

    "A five-star recommendation."

    --Fanfare

    Ravel: Piano Trio in a minor
    1. Modéré
    2. Pantoum (Assez vif)
    3. Passacaille (Très large)
    4. Final (Animé)
    Schubert: Piano Trio In E Flat, Op. 100
    5. Allegro
    6. Andante Con Moto
    7. Scherzando : Allegro Moderato
    8. Allegro Moderato

    CD reviews:

    "The performance by the Icicle Creek Trio comes as close to being "definitive" as any I expect to hear in my lifetime."

    - Jerry Dubins, Fanfare

    "Don't judge people by their names?this is a wonderful album! It even made me take delight in the Schubert, a work that usually drives me out of the room.

    "After not even five seconds, I was aware of this group's exquisitely bright tuning and the gentle atmosphere they create for Ravel's impressionist masterpiece. After repeating the opening phrase at a leisurely pace, they give a delicate surge of energy to the first theme before slightly retreating into the ineffably lovely second theme, as the cello in tenor range plays counterpoint to the violin, and the pianist gently generates waves of arpeggios."

    "...the Piu Lento coda is a touch of heaven."

    --Gil French, American Record Guide

    "The playing is warmly considered, meticulous in articulation and blend, and silken in sonority. [The players] gauge Schubert's brooding lines with affecting subtlety. They emphasise the music's contrasts of light and dark within a true chamber-music context, as if they're seated in the room feet away from your ears."

    --Donald Rosenberg, Gramophone

    "They catch all the subtle, shimmering shades of the Ravel Trio, but this is essentially a young, virile and robust view of the score."

    "Their approach to the Schubert is literal and free of those mannerisms that have become encrusted on the work over the years."

    --David Denton, The Strad

    "The name "Icicle Creek" doesn't really do this piano trio justice. They perform with such fiery passion that there couldn't possibly be anything frozen within 100 yards of them....this stellar recording captures some truly stunning musicianship."

    --Chris Robley, CD Baby

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