Rautio Piano Trio: Voices across time

‘Voices across time’

Amy Beach Piano Trio in A minor Op. 150
*Akhmatova Requiem by J. Rautio for soprano, piano trio & bass clarinet
*World premiere

Violinist Jane Gordon brings her critically acclaimed Rautio Piano Trio with special guests Hannah Deans-Williams, soprano and Steve Williams, clarinet, for the festival finale, bringing together the voices of two remarkable women and celebrating creative voice, resilience and the power of artistic expression.

At the heart of the programme are two distinctive creative voices that emerged in very different circumstances. Amy Beach forged a path as a composer in a musical world largely closed to women, while Anna Akhmatova gave voice to individual and collective suffering under repression. Separated by time and circumstance, their work shares a profound sense of resilience and a belief in the enduring power of artistic expression. 

• This concert sees the world premiere of Jan Rautio’s Requiem, a setting of Akhmatova’s poetry for soprano and ensemble.

Anna Akhmatova (1889–1966) was one of Russia’s most important poets of the twentieth century. Her poetry combines emotional intensity with an extraordinary economy of language, exploring love, loss, memory and the passage of time. As Soviet repression intensified, her work became a powerful witness to personal and collective suffering, shaped by war, persecution and the imprisonment of her son. Despite censorship and suppression, Akhmatova continued to write, and her poems were memorised and passed from person to person. 

Amy Beach (1867–1944) was the first successful American woman to make a career as a composer and concert pianist. Largely self-taught as a composer, she overcame the restrictions placed on women in musical life at the time to establish an international reputation. Her music combines the harmonic language of late Romanticism with influences from American folk music and her own experiences as a pianist.

• Artists in Conversation: Meet the musicians and composer Jan Rautio in a pre-concert talk on setting Akhmatova’s poetry for the premiere of ‘Requiem’.

The Rautio Piano Trio (Jane, Victoria and Jan) performs extensively across the UK and Europe, and since the release of their acclaimed debut album of Mozart Trios in 2016 has established a reputation for refined artistry and emotionally powerful performances. With a particular passion for 18th- and 19th-century repertoire, they perform on both modern and period instruments, bringing fresh perspectives to historical masterworks. The Trio has recorded four albums with Resonus Classics to critical acclaim and is currently recording the complete Beethoven piano trios on fortepiano, with the first volumes receiving five stars in BBC Music Magazine. Regularly featured on BBC Radio 3, they have performed at major venues including Wigmore Hall, Kings Place and Bridgewater Hall, as well as internationally in France, Austria and Germany. Their repertoire also encompasses contemporary music and an increasing focus on works by women composers.