The String Trio op. 147 was performed in Los Angeles, Mario’s adopted city, on November 13, 2022 in a concert presented by the Wilshire Boulevard Temple and the Holocaust Museum of Los Angeles, under the auspices of the Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices. This work was composed in 1950 at the composer’s home in Beverly Hills, just a few miles from the Temple. However, this concert was the first time the Trio had been heard live in Los Angeles since 1968, when it was performed at a memorial service for the composer.
The performance featured young performers: violinist Adam Millstein, who is also the program manager of the Recovered Voices Initiative, cellist Nathan Mo, and violist Jin Peng, in an exceptional new space, the Audrey Irmas Pavilion at the Wilshire Boulevard Temple. The artists will perform the String Trio again on December 4 at the La Jolla Music Society’s Discover Series.
The String Trio belongs to a series of chamber music works composed by Castelnuovo-Tedesco between 1945 and 1951, when he was at the height of his inspiration and prowess. The String Trio was published by Edizioni Curci in 2018 as part of the Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco Collection and was recorded for the first time that same year by violinist Davide Alogna; cellist Roberto Trainini; and violist Federico Stassi, for the Naxos label.
The Ziering-Conlon Initiative for Recovered Voices, part of the Colburn School, is a resource that encourages greater awareness and more frequent performances of music by composers whose careers and lives were disrupted – or worse – during the years of the Nazi regime in Europe.
A big thank you to Ziering-Conlon Initiative, and specifically to Adam Millstein and his colleagues for their enthusiasm for this music, as well as to the Wilshire Temple for hosting a beautiful event.