Lincoln Trio - Trios from Contemporary Chicago (2022) [Hi-Res]

The twice-Grammy-nominated, Billboard-charting Lincoln Trio — violinist Desirée Ruhstrat, cellist David Cunliffe, and pianist Marta Aznavoorian — surveys works by five of Chicago’s most highly lauded contemporary composers on an album that features three world-premiere recordings. The Lincoln Trio’s hometown heroes in this project are Shawn E. Okpebholo, Augusta Read Thomas, Shulamit Ran, Mischa Zupko, and Stacy Garrop.

Okpebholo’s music has been described as “devastatingly beautiful” and “fresh and new and fearless” (Washington Post). His three-movement city beautiful, a world-premiere recording, evokes the distinctive Chicago architecture of Jeanne Gang’s wavy, water-inspired Aqua skyscraper; Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie School masterpiece, the Frederick C. Robie House; and Daniel Burnham’s Beaux-Arts Union Station.

Recipient of many awards and honors, Augusta Read Thomas is “a true virtuoso composer” (The New Yorker). Her vibrant, multicolored …a circle around the sun… gives each instrument, by turns, a “starring” role in the center of a compact musical solar system.

In addition to receiving the Pulitzer Prize in 1991, Ran has received almost every major honor a U.S. composer can earn. Her Soliloquy, depicting unrequited love, is based on a musical fragment from her first opera, Between Two Worlds (The Dybbuk), with the violin serving as its emotional center.

Zupko’s music has earned kudos from The New York Times, Classical Voice North America, the Chicago Tribune, and other major publications and has been championed, commissioned, and premiered by leading U.S. orchestras and chamber groups. His celebratory Fanfare 80, a world-premiere recording, opens with the hallmarks of a classic fanfare, with “antiphonal volleys” among the instruments and occasional “dance-like” passages from the piano.

“One of Chicago’s most keenly sensitive composers” (Chicago Tribune), Garrop is also among the busiest. Recent com-missions include works for The Crossing, Grant Park Orchestra, and St. Louis Symphony. Her Sanctuary, another world- premiere recording, is a deeply personal tribute to her late father. The music evokes a child’s lonely search for memories of a lost parent, followed by the joy and solemnity of a father-daughter reunion.