CHAN9340 Brahms

“The Bekovas emerge here as musicians of great thoughtfulness and sympathy.... revealing an exceptional perception.”

Classic CD (Great Britain), April 1995

“As is immediately apparent in their flowing start.... they present a graciously, fluid, unhurried Brahms, a Brahms seen through feminine eyes, perhaps, yet certainly not lacking in strength at moments of climax.... Tonal reproduction of all three instruments is always pleasingly mellow.... I certainly look forwards to hearing these sisters again.”

Gramophone (Great Britain), May 1995

“The Bekovas...have created a sensation in England where few English trios offer playing to the high technical level and interpretive depth achieved by these intensely musical siblings. Good judgement and flexibility in pacing are added to the tonal solidity, accuracy, and sharp metrical definition the Bekovas bring to these Brahms trios. They do not defer to local custom, adopting for most movements tempos broader than ordinary, in the familiar Russian manner.”

Fanfare (USA), November/December 1996

CHAN9400 Brahms

“The three sisters play splendidly...the recording is of the familiar high Chandos standard.”

Fanfare (USA), January/February 1998

CHAN9834 Cassado/Turina/Granados

“Unsurprisingly for the composer of the Goyescas, (Granados’) piano writing throughout is peerlessly brilliant and is relayed with great virtuosity by Eleonora Bekova.

“Certainly the impact of these four enjoyable pieces is enhanced by the Bekova Trio’s imaginative and beautifully expressive performances. Their sonority and refined yet stylish sense of rhythm and line is perfectly suited to this colourful music. Rather than bringing the performers into your living room, Chandos’ big acoustic recordinggives you an excellent seat in the recital hall. This one’s a real treat!”

Classics Today (USA), January 2002

CHAN9844 Clarke/Ives

The Bekova recording of the Ives Trio coupled with Clarke’s Trio, Lullaby and Midsummer Moon was selected by Peter Dickinson in Gramophone Magazine as one of his five Critic’s Choice CDs of the Year, 2000. This recording was also the Strad Magazine’s Star Selection CD for November 2000.

“Stunning”

Gramophone (Great Britain), January 2001

“The opening grabs you by the throat and won’t let you go. And the passionate cello recitative which follows, and the luminous but unsettling piano writing of Rebecca Clarke’s Piano Trio suits the highly-strung physicality of the Bekova Sisters’ playing down to the ground... Clarke was very much her own woman, as this Piano Trio reveals in its rewarding twinning with a clear-sighted performance of Charles Ives’ tricksy work for the same ensemble. The Bekovas, warmly recorded in the Snape Maltings, also offer a premiere recording of Clarke’s heady Midsummer Moon for violin and piano; and close with the balm of her 1918 Lullaby for violin and cello.”

Hilary Finch, The Times (Great Britain), 25 July 2000

“All this comes through with complete conviction and excellent teamwork from the Bekova Sisters.”

Gramophone (Great Britain), November 2000

“The Bekovas play it (the Clarke Trio) sympathetically...They obviously relish the Ives mixture of strenuous counterpoint, exuberant collage and pious repose... This well-recorded disc is thoroughly recommendable.”

BBC Music Magazine (Great Britain), November 2000

“The Bekovas’ evident sympathy for Rebecca Clarke’s music contributes to their arrestingly persuasive account of her Piano Trio, admirably clarifying the motovic associations between its three movements...the solo violin passages are splendidly realised by Elvira Bekova... Clarke’s Lullaby is sensitively played by Elvira and Alfia, while Elvira and Eleonora combine to give a sonorous account of Midsummer Moon.

“The Bekovas perform the Ives Piano Trio with stunning efficiency and brilliance. They realise its subtly crafted opening movement with intelligence and artistry and communicate with aplomb the humour of the central Presto. They fully capture the spirit of its substantial finale...The excellent recorded sound completes a most recommendable and engaging recital.”

The Strad (Great Britain), November 2000

“The Bekovas are obviously at home in the big ripe camembert of Rebecca Clarke’s 1921 masterpiece. Admirers of Bloch and Scriabin will have a field day with this work, full of plush sounds and massive piano chords.”

International Record Review (Great Britain), October 2000

CHAN9680 Franck Volume 1

“Cesar Franck’s opus 1 is emulating the great Beethoven since his opus 1 is also a set of three piano trios. He also copied Beethoven’s cyclic form but Franck is no Beethoven since his music is too derivative and repetitive although it can be very attractive... The real joy of this trio is the marvellous performance; the sound is sometimes ravishing and the balance exemplary. The beautiful playing is so good that I forgot how ordinary a work this is and many will love it!

“The central allegro molto succeeds because of an excellent choice of tempo and the whole piece is played most expertly.

“The Violin Sonata dates from forty five years later and is very popular with those who like ‘tunes’ to reappear and reappear. Again, this is far from great music but the performance simply glows, as indeed, it does in the Piano Trio.”

Classical CD Reviews (Great Britain), February 2000

CHAN9742 Franck Volume 2

“Moreover, the Bekova Sisters brilliantly capture its full-blooded romanticism and passionate musical language, with some well-characterised dialogue between the strings and a fine sense of dramatic pacing. The Bekovas are technically excellent throughout theses works.”

The Strad (Great Britain), October 1999

The Bekova sisters, who as three pretty, young Russian girls conquered the West in 1989 with their family line-up, are back with another volume dedicated to the very rarely recorded chamber music composed by C≥sar Franck in his youth. This is not yet the composer of the romantic Sonata in A major for violin, but it is already possible to glimpse this future path in the sad finale of the 3rd Trio, or in the orchestral density of the 4th Trio, dedicated to Liszt. The Bekovas are refined and disciplined performers, who avoid cloying excesses. The outstanding feature is the extremely delicate piano of Eleonora Bekova. One curiosity: the 2nd Trio was written by C≥sar Franck at the age of 15. A delight to listen to.

O Estado de S‹o Paulo (Brazil),14 October, 1999

“The Bekovas could hardly be more persuasive.”

Classic CD (Great Britain), November 1999

“This companion disc to the Bekovas’ Chandos disc of the F sharp minor Trio is much to be recommended... The Bekovas’ impassioned, disciplined renditions capture well the elusive Franckian essence.”

BBC Music Magazine (Great Britain), October 1999

CHAN9831 Steven Gerber

“The Bekovas commissioned Gerber to write a new concerto...as the work evolved that intention did not work out as planned. It consists of three linked sections in which the solo trio either reflects or confronts the mood of the orchestra, eventually agreeing on a pleasing unity in the final passage. The Bekovas’ performance is most enjoyable... This is music of our time that I most strongly urge you to hear.”

The Strad (Great Britain) review of Gerber Triple Overture, October 2000

“Born in 1948, Steven R. Gerber has one of the most direct and readily accessible voices in contemporary American music. The works on this disc, written between 1988 and 1998, are all tonal (often in the purest sense) and are characterized by distinctive and powerful melodic contours and an immediately appealing highly charged language. These performances are directed by Thomas Sanderling, whose attentive, compelling and authoritative style should win wide approval for the pieces. His orchestra, the Russian Philharmonic, plays the often taxing scores with an ease and commitment that suggests keen affinity with the music... Lars Anders Tomter is superb in the Viola Concerto, as are the Bekova Sisters in the fascinating Triple Overture. A significant, beautifully performed and impeccably recorded disc.

Rough Guide to Classical Music (USA), 2000 edition

“The performances carrying a conviction and attention to detail that has resulted from conscientious preparation and rehearsal.”

Fanfare (USA), November/December 2000

“The ingenious structure of the Triple Overture , both in terms of form and scoring; the piano is both co-soloist and part of the dark, sinewy orchestral sound... The performers really respond to this music and give urgent, vividly brilliant readings. Excellent recordings too in believable acoustics.”

International Record Review (Great Britain), September 2000

“The Triple Overture was written for the splendid Bekova Sisters... Committed performances decently recorded.”

Gramophone (Great Britain), December 2000

CHAN 9461 Grechaninov

“Its childlike escapism is undoubtedly touching and rewarding to play. Strong, enjoyable, up-front performances from the talented Bekova Sisters.”

Gramophone (Great Britain), October 1997

BIS810 Sofia Gubaidulina

“A BIS recording of performances from last summer’s Lockenhaus Festival is yet more evidence of (Gubaidulina’s) restless captivating mind. Her riotously varied works are like a parade in a Fellini movie: grotesque, even comic at first, then lyrically haunting as figures come in line. Musicians led by Gidon Kremer play several short, brilliant, gorgeous, Gubaidulina chamber pieces...The disk does justice to the intimate intensity of the Lockenhaus experience.”

New York Times (USA), 26 September 1996

CHAN 9452 Ravel/Martinu

“With hot-blooded energy, the talented Bekova Sisters revel in the brittle neo-classical rough-and-tumble of No.1 of the unrelated five short pieces which constitute Martinu’s Trio, reveal sinewy energy in the motoric No.3 and romp through the wild No.5.”

Gramophone (Great Britain) review of Martinu Trio No.1, July 1996

CHAN9632 Martinu

The Bekovas’ CD of the Martinu Piano Trios numbers 2 and 3, Czech Rhapsody and Nocturnes was selected by BBC Music Magazine Critics’ Choice as one of the best CDs of 1998 in their Christmas 1998 selection. In his original review, Terry Barfoot wrote:

“The performances are most pleasing, the Bekova Sisters enhancing their reputation as artists of the first rank.... They also include two duo compositions. The Czech Rhapsody was written for Fritz Kreisler. Understandably, virtuosity has a high priority, though there is room for lyricism as Elvira Bekova meets the challenge. The Nocturnes subtitled ‘Studies for Cello and Piano’.... address technical problems in a most musical way. There could be no better description of Alfia Bekova’s performance, which is enhanced, like the other items, by excellent Chandos sound.”

BBC Music Magazine (Great Britain), September 1998

“The Bekova Sisters deliver strong performance of considerable punch.... Eleonora delivers firm vivid support throughout.”

Fanfare (USA), December 1998

“The ‘Czech Rhapsody’ is really rather a beautiful piece and Elvira Bekova plays it with much sensitivity and feeling. The playing throughout has spirit and dedication, and the recording, made at The Maltings in Snape, is in the best Chandos tradition.”

Gramophone (Great Britain), January 1999

“This is a winner. And how magnificently it is played.”

Classical CD Reviews (Great Britain), February 2000

CHAN 9672 Mussorgsky/ Rimsky-Korsakov

“If one knows the original piano version and the orchestration by Ravel, then one is stunned here in the first place by the modernity of the strings. All of Mussorgsky’s and Ravel’s timbre and musical colouring here becomes a playful musical experiment. Totally contemporary!”

Het Laatse Nieuws (Belgium), December 1990

“The Bekova Sisters have been quietly building a considerable discography for Chandos, not only recording impassioned versions of the standard piano trio literature but expanding the catalog with inventive arrangements. The group’s last album paired Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio with the Sisters’ transcription of the composer’s small keyboard gems, ‘The Seasons’. Here they twin Rimsky-Korsakov’s rarely heard Piano Trio with their setting of Mussorgsky’s beloved instrumental masterpiece, ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’. Whilst not supplanting either Mussorgsky’s original keyboard version or the famous orchestration by Ravel, the Bekova Sisters’ version has a piquant, picturesque charm that succeeds in enabling the listener to view a favorite piece anew. As usual from Chandos, the recording casts the playing in the most flattering light.”

Billboard (USA), 19 February 2000

“This piano trio arrangement seems to be the first (of Mussorgsky’s ‘Pictures’). It works surprisingly well. ‘Gnomus’ is spookily laid out with plenty of string temolo and sul ponticello; there is what sounds like some eerie col legno bowing in ‘The Old Castle’ and ‘Tuileries’ speeds along with lightly dancing string figuration around the piano...One of the most touching pieces is the double portrait of the two Jews, one rich, one poor. I have always disliked the snivelling muted trumpet in Ravel’s orchestration. Here, much of the music is given to the violin, tenderly played.

“It is an attractive and interesting piece and the Bekova Sisters respond with especial sensitivity to the beautiful instrumental writing which had long been Rimsky-Korsakov’s second nature.”

Gramophone (Great Britain), March 2000

“There is a great deal to enjoy in the Rimsky. The performances are good and the recorded sound most admirable.”

Classical CD Reviews (Great Britain), March 2000

“Do we really need another recording of ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’? Well in this case where the Bekovas give us the premier recording of ‘Pictures’ arranged for piano trio, the answer’s a resounding YES!... This interpretation is simply spectacular. What I found most impressive was the way the sparse instrumentation allows each of the component (instruments) to fully exploit its own tonal palette... They play beautifully together, passing the melodies amongst themselves with no single instrument dominating the work.

“The arrangement is wonderfully wrought. The serenade from ‘The Old Castle’ is seamlessly passed from the cello to the violin to the piano. During ‘Samuel Goldberg and Schmuyle’, the violin effectively gives the piece a Middle Eastern flavour I’ve not heard before. The Trio’s speedy play and darting interchanges also give us better insight into the commotion at ‘The Market Place at Limoges’. And the solemn ‘Con mortuis in lingua mortua’ is just plain eerie... This is one arrangement any lover of ‘Pictures’ will want for his or her collection.

“The Rimsky-Korsakov piano trio in C major is well served here with a first rate performance.”

Soundstage (USA), April 2001

“The Bekovas turn in idiomatic, sensitively dovetailed work.”

Classics Today, September 2000

CHAN 9329 Rachmaninov

“When the Moscow Trio played Rachmaninov’s Trio Elegiaque No 2 in D minor in 1903, the composer claimed that they had made him at last fall in love with the work. Nearly a century later, the Bekova Sisters will win even more admirers for the piece with their perceptive and imaginative Chandos recording debut.”

Hilary Finch, The Times (Great Britain), 21 January 1995

“The Bekovas play with great authority and elegance. The consistently beautiful string tone produced by Alfia and Elvira is impressive... The performance is enjoyable and I look forwards to hearing more of the Bekovas.”

Fanfare (USA), March/April 1995

CR3911-2 Rachmaninov/Shostakovich Cello Sonatas

“This is a disc originally issued in 1989. Two of the three Bekova Sisters, caught here in their pre-Chandos days, present two Russian cello sonatas on this disc. The coupling is a good one: the yearning, passionate Rachmaninov goes well with the serious, more internalised Shostakovich.

“Alfia is capable of long, singing lines, and so in the Rachmaninov the nostalgic quality of the first movement and the wistful character of the third come off well. Both protagonists capture the agility of the Allegro Scherzando and convey a real sense of enjoyment.”

Classical CD Reviews (Great Britain), November 2000

CHAN 9414 Schubert

“The playing on this disc is largely authoritative and splendidly idiomatic without any hint of irritating eccentricity.... Throughout the blend and interplay of string playing is encouraging and the second movement, in particular, is ultimately predicated along those poised and emotionally ambivalent lines that were so peculiarly Schubert’s own.”

The Strad (Great Britain), January 1995

“The first three discs with trios by Rachmaninov, Brahms and arrangements of short Russian pieces are characterised by unbridled musical gusto, emotional depth and daring. Their aforementioned qualities are also to be found in these recordings of Schubert’s Second Trio and Notturno. Lovely solid playing in which on the firm basis of Eleonora’s piano, the sisters all contribute colourful, truly overwhelming performances.”

Klassiek Magazine (The Netherlands), November 1995

“The Bekovas follow-up their firmly put arguments for two Brahms discs with Schubert-playing of comparable strength... The Notturno’s expansiveness the Bekovas’ musically poetic qualities of gesture and wide dynamic range make more than a little Brahmsian. They recreate the big E-flat Trio in the same big uninhibited vein, a manner wholly disarming in its winging, driving exuberance... This ensemble should build a very loyal following.”

Fanfare (USA), November/December 1996

CHAN9526 Shostakovich

“The Bekovas are splendid musicians...The Bekovas, both individually and together, play with great sensitivity and impressive virtuosity... a bonus disc is included, Joan Rodgers joins the Bekovas for a splendid performance of the Blok songs. Rodgers sings with great tonal beauty, but her reading is also full of insights and nuances that illuminate the texts.”

Fanfare (USA), November/December 1999

CHAN 9428 Tchaikovsky Songs

“The Bekova Sisters have skilfully arranged twenty-five Tchaikovsky songs for voice and piano trio without violating the spirit of the originals. The result, in the most successful examples, is quite a revelation...The Bekova Sisters are a gifted lot. They have superb musicianship and a wonderful sense of nineteenth century style; a telling use of portamenti, a personal and creative approach to phrasing and pacing.”

Fanfare (USA), May/June 1996

“Sergej Larin... is a tenor with an extraordinarily attractive voice, very sweet at the top, manly in the middle...A marvellous recital.”

Classic CD (Great Britain), July 1996

CHAN 9719 Tchaikovsky

“The Bekova Sisters have reversed the nineteenth century approach of transcribing music for larger forces for piano trio, by successfully enlarging solo piano music for piano trio. Tchaikovsky was never a great tone painter where solo piano was concerned, and the Bekovas have done him a favour here by fulfilling the hitherto unrealised colouristic potential of music largely ignored by great pianists. They have rendered it far more attractive to the average music lover and the instrumental balance is all one could wish for...The suppleness and lilt of their rhythm is impeccable and infectious, easily outclassing Chandos’s other trio in almost every respect. The intonation is spotless, the interplay between the players, like their uncanny unanimity, is almost creepy in its subtlety, and their judgement of mood and formal perspective is exemplary. Superb performances which can hold their own with all comers.”

Classic CD (Great Britain), July 1999

“The interpretation by the Bekova Sisters brings to life and at the same time emphasises features which are lost in comparable recordings. In this recording gracefulness, wit, vivacity and feeling combine to form a charming palette.”

Das Tauzarchir (Germany), June 1999

“An account as moving as any and as finely played. The Bekovas imaginatively draw on what is there- the dreaming of the second movement’s ninth variation is very affectingly done, making a delightful contrast with the following capricious mazurka variation. As to the oft-encountered problems of instrumental balance in this piece, somehow they seen to sort themselves out, for which credit is due- equally- to the pianist’s awareness that it is all too easy to dominate in this piece, to the engineering, and to the fact that it is the kind of performance that invites you to engage with it on an expressive level.”

Gramophone (Great Britain), August 1999

CHAN9364 Elegy

“Two things that most of these pieces have in common: they are Russian, and they are marvellously wedded to the talents of these wonderful musicians. The arrangements are virtuosic although only occasionally flashy, and consistently peppered with imaginative effects: the use of harmonics and col legno bowing in the serenade from Borodin’s ‘Petite suite’; playing on the bridge in the waltz from Prokofiev’s ‘ War and Piece’ (which is, from beginning to end, quite an astonishing performance); and even a dip into the strings of the piano. In the more straightforward arrangements, the playing is simply beautiful: the Khachaturian Adagio and the Gliere Romance are exquisite, and the well-known Russian Romance is completely captivating. Chandos has captured all this in appropriately warm, clear sound. I think even those who normally dislike potpourri will find this disc thoroughly entertaining.”

Fanfare (USA), September 1995