Press Releases

The first seeds of this project were sown almost five years ago when Trio Isimsiz opted to use its BBT Fellowship award to commission a new piano trio from Spanish composer Francisco Coll. The world premiere performance took place in Madrid in 2022, followed by its UK premiere at Aldeburgh Festival and then recording sessions at Menuhin Hall shortly after.  December sees the album’s release, the Trio’s third with Rubicon Classics and the completion of its recording of all three Brahms piano trios.

Coll’s 17-minute work is cast in four movements, rich in contrasting styles and influences ranging from the familiar to unconventional with allusions to opera, flamenco, a ‘hallucinated fugue’ and fragments of tango. Coll’s explanation of his compositional approach – ‘a kind of surrealism’ – is a particularly enlightening moment in a short film, Playing with History, from BBT’s filmmaker Graham Johnston.

For Trio Isimsiz the stimulating challenge of performing and recording a brand new work is matched by the thrill of playing Korngold’s incredibly youthful Piano Trio Op 1 and contrasted with the warm-hearted, high-spirited trio of a mature Brahms – all of which provides a full spectrum of the piano trio repertoire, from innovation to cherished familiarity.

Watch Playing with History

Listen to Excerpts

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Two major new concertos are now underway from composers already featured in BBT’s portfolio of over 50 commissioned works. New Zealand’s Salina Fisher, whose short work Hikari for violinist Alexi Kenney was premiered in the UK in June this year as part of the Trust’s 20th anniversary celebrations, is composing a violin concerto for Geneva Lewis co-commissioned with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Auckland Phillharmonia.  Meanwhile a collaboration involving several BBT Artists alumni is in the creative pipeline with Mark Simpson (BBT Fellowship 2014) composing a new concerto for Timothy Ridout who will play the premiere in December 2024 with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin conducted by Robin Ticciati (BBT Fellowship 2004).

BBT Commissions

Watch Salina Fisher & Mark Simpson Commissions at BBT20

Following the thrilling premiere of the Multi-Story Orchestra and Young Creatives‘ Verified project for the BBT20 celebrations in June, CEO Susan Rivers witnessed two more projects supported by BBT Communities grants given earlier this year: Chineke! Junior Orchestra’s concert at Fairfield Halls Croydon in South London, which was the culmination of a week’s residential course at Benenden School in Kent and B  which brought together players from the National Open Youth Orchestra with amateur musicians from the BSO Dorset Rusties for an intensive weekend’s study and performance of Borodin’s colourful second symphony.

Read Susan’s blog here

Click here for an online version of the November eNewsletter