A Trio of Inspired Soloists

Looking back on 25 years with the Beaux Arts Trio, cellist Bernard Greenhouse comments. "I think it's a miracle! Twenty-five years is a long time to be together: I'm surprised we're still talking to each other." Indeed Greenhouse and his companions, violinist Isidore Cohen and pianist Menahem Pressler, are still the closest of friends, in spite of the strain of playing more than 125 concerts around the world every year. One reason the group has kept its sanity over the years is that the members maintain a distinct separateness when not on tour. They hardly ever see each other at these times, devoting themselves instead to their individual teaching and solo careers.

Cohen, age 57, lives in Manhattan, where he is on the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music and SUNY at Stony Brook. During the summer, he performs and teaches at the Marlboro Festival. The son of a scrap-metal dealer from Brooklyn, Cohen studied under Ivan Galamian at Julliard. Before joining the Beaux Arts Trio in 1968, Cohen spent more than ten years with the Julliard String Quartet. He has also appeared as a guest artist with the distinguished Budapest Quartet. In some ways, Cohen is the most jocular of the Beaux Arts, often relieving the tension of rehearsals with a quick quip.

Like Cohen, Greenhouse also teaches at the Manhattan School and at Stony Brook; he resides in Long Island. Greenhouse has studied with the world's greatest cellists, including Emanuel Feuermann and Pablo Casals. The latter taught Greenhouse in France just after World War II for free--in exchange for his pledge to support the Spanish Republican cause. After spending some years as a soloist. Greenhouse opted for a somewhat less draining ensemble career. When his friends Menahem Pressler and Daniel Guilet approached him in 1955, he agreed to join them for eight to ten concerts. He has been a part of the Beaux Arts Trio ever since. Greenhouse, age 64, plays a Stradivarius cello, 210 years older than himself. Stradivarius only made 60 celli, and today only 15 are in their original state. Greenhouse is quite protective of his, and he always carries it on board airplanes with him. Due to its size, the cello flies first class, while the cellist flies coach.

As a pianist, Pressler cannot travel with his instrument and so is more at the mercy of circumstance. He must perform on whatever piano happens to be in the hall when he arrives: in the past, these have included an out-of-tune upright and a piano with no pedals. When not performing with the trio. Pressler goes home to Bloomington, Indiana, where he is a professor at Indiana University. He keeps an active schedule of engagements with such orchestras as the Cleveland, the Philadelphia, and the New York Philharmonic. He has also appeared with such ensembles as the Julliard and the Guarneri string quartets. A native of Magdeburg, Germany, Pressler fled to Israel with his family before World War II. Currently 56 years old, he launched his music career at age 17, when he traveled to San Francisco and won the Claude Debussy competition.

When Cohen, Greenhouse and Pressler get back together after a few weeks of separation, their music sounds as fresh as if it were their first tour. Each of the three brings his own insight to every performance: after 25 years, they have developed enough familiarity and confidence to follow one another's inspirations as they occur. The result is an ever-new sound on stage. Greenhouse comments. "When we play the Ravel Trio for our 30th anniversary, it won't sound anything like the way we played it on our 25th."