The Beethoven Project Trio Performs The New York Premieres Of Three Rediscovered Beethoven Piano Trios May 18, 2010

On May 18, 2010 at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, The International Beethoven Project presents the New York premieres of three Beethoven chamber works. First and foremost on the program is the only completed movement of the recently rediscovered Piano Trio in E Flat Major, Hess 47, which received its world premiere to critical acclaim in Chicago last spring. The evening will also feature the New York premieres of two other virtually unknown Beethoven trios – Piano Trio in D Major, Anhang 3, and Piano Trio in E Flat Major, Opus 63. The beloved “Archduke” Piano Trio completes the concert program, which will be performed by The Beethoven Project Trio – an ensemble founded in 2008 that comprises three critically-acclaimed musicians: pianist George Lepauw, violinist Sang Mee Lee and cellist Wendy Warner.

Lepauw, a concert pianist who resides in Paris and Chicago when not touring, was first told about the existence of a partial manuscript of an unknown Beethoven piece in 2007 by Dominique Prévot, president of the Association Beethoven France. Working with James F. Green, editor of the New Hess Catalog of Beethoven’s Works, and members of the American Beethoven Society, Lepauw was able to secure the score of Piano Trio in E Flat Major, Hess 47. He gave the work’s world premiere in Chicago with the Beethoven Project Trio on March 1, 2009, an event that received international media attention. According to the Chicago Tribune, the discovery and performance of this piece has “cast revealing light on the master’s working methods.”