June 20: GRAMMY®-Nominated Neave Trio Releases La Mer – New Album on Chandos Records Featuring the Music of Debussy (arr. Sally Beamish), Saint-Saëns, and Bonis
GRAMMY®-Nominated Neave Trio Releases La Mer
New Album on Chandos Records
Featuring the Music of
Claude Debussy (arr. Sally Beamish), Camille Saint-Saëns, and Mel Bonis
Listen to the First Single – Out Now
Saint-Saëns’s Trio No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 92, Mvt. II
Worldwide Release: June 20, 2025
Pre-Order Available Now
Downloads and CDs available to press on request
“Passion, vibrancy and a riot of colours” –The Strad
“I was spellbound by the generous and warm-hearted, utterly beguiling playing” –BBC Music Magazine
www.neavetrio.com | www.chandos.net
On June 20, 2025, the GRAMMY®-nominated Neave Trio (violinist Anna Williams, cellist Mikhail Veselov, and pianist Eri Nakamura), releases La Mer, the ensemble’s seventh album on Chandos Records. Following the folk-inspired program of Neave’s 2024 album Rooted, La Mer is a celebration of French works for piano trio focused on three pieces composed around the turn of the twentieth century – Trio No. 2, Op. 92 in E minor by Camille Saint-Saëns; Soir-Matin, Op. 76 by Mel Bonis; and La Mer by Claude Debussy, arranged by Sally Beamish. The first single, the second movement of Saint-Saëns’s Trio No. 2 in E Minor, Op. 92, is out now – listen here.
With this album, the Neave Trio continues its dedication to crafting compelling recordings with inspired thematic focus – a passion that has thrived since the release of Musical Remembrances in 2022, which was nominated for a GRAMMY® in the Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble category.
“Together, these works form a richly textured soundscape, capturing the sea’s many forms: majestic, mysterious, and vulnerable,” says the Neave Trio. “In creating La Mer, we sought not only to explore the emotional range of this repertoire, but to reflect on our shared connection to the natural world — and the urgent need to preserve its beauty.”
The album’s titular work is Claude Debussy's orchestral masterpiece La Mer, as arranged by Sally Beamish. This three-movement symphonic work presented Beamish with an exceptional challenge. Beamish says she strove to “reinvent Debussy's orchestral score with the piano trio in mind… This meant exploring what strings and piano can do in terms of texture and concentrating on idiomatic and natural techniques.” By studying and recreating Debussy's colors and textures, rather than attempting to transcribe every note, Beamish produced an arrangement that presents the performers and listeners with a completely new perspective on these well-loved seascapes.
Saint-Saëns’ Piano Trio No. 2 dates from 1892. Unusually for Saint-Saëns, the work took a great deal of time from conception to completion – over five years – and then went through several subsequent revisions before Saint-Saëns was finally satisfied. Though smaller in scale, Mel Bonis’s two pieces, Soir and Matin, are equally powerful works, bridging the worlds of Romanticism and Impressionism. Soir is dominated by a cantabile melody, while Matin is more chromatic and harmonically complex.
Of La Mer’s oceanic theme and its connection with the musicality of the works on the album, the Neave Trio says:
“La Mer is a meditation on the sea – its power, fragility, and timeless mystery. At a time when the ocean is more than ever at the center of our global consciousness, we were drawn to music that explores, whether overtly or in more subtle ways, the sea’s emotional and atmospheric depths. Sally Beamish’s masterful arrangement of Debussy’s La Mer for piano trio anchors the album – preserving the vast scope and color of the original while offering an intimate and transparent new lens. While the works by Camille Saint-Saëns and Mel Bonis are not programmatic in the same way, we felt they resonate with Debussy’s vision. Each offers a vivid, almost visual impression of motion, power, atmosphere, and beauty. The opening of the Saint-Saëns Trio No. 2 rolls forward with the momentum of crashing waves, while Bonis’s trio evokes a glowing sonic landscape – fluid, layered, and alive.”
The Neave Trio has emerged as one of the finest young ensembles of its generation. It has been praised by WQXR Radio in New York City, with the station noting the alignment of the trio’s unique name and exemplary musicality: “'Neave' is actually a Gaelic name meaning 'bright' and 'radiant', both of which certainly apply to this trio's music making." The trio is also described by The Strad as having "elegant phrasing and deft control of textures," and praised by The New York Times for its "excellent performances."
Previous albums include Rooted (Chandos, 2024), which celebrates the folk inspired music of Bedřich Smetana, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Josef Suk, and Frank Martin; Musical Remembrances (Chandos, 2022), which features Rachmaninoff’s Trio élégiaque No. 1, Brahms’ Piano Trio No. 1, Op. 8, and Ravel’s Piano Trio in A minor, Op. 67; the highly celebrated Her Voice (Chandos, 2019), which features the works of women composers Louise Farrenc, Amy Beach, and Rebecca Clarke; A Room of Her Own (Chandos, 2024), the thematic successor to Her Voice that highlights music by Cécile Chaminade, Ethel Smyth, Germaine Tailleferre, and Lili Boulanger – two pairs of women composers from two different generations; French Moments (Chandos, 2018), which includes the only known piano trios by Debussy, Fauré, and Roussel; and Neave’s Chandos debut, American Moments (2016), featuring works by Korngold, Foote, and Bernstein. In 2018, Neave Trio also released its critically acclaimed album, Celebrating Piazzolla (Azica Records, 2018), featuring mezzo-soprano Carla Jablonski.
Formed in 2010, the Neave Trio – currently Ensemble-in-Residence at Virginia Commonwealth University – strives to champion new works by living composers and reach wider audiences through innovative concert presentations, regularly collaborating with artists of all mediums. These collaborations include the premiere of Robert Paterson’s Triple Concerto with the Mostly Modern Orchestra under the direction of JoAnn Falletta; D-Cell: an Exhibition & Durational Performance, conceived and directed by multi-disciplinary visual artist David Michalek; the commissioning and premiere of Vast Palette – a new work by Jennifer Higdon – and Gathering Light, a collaboration with visual artist and Harvard professor Sharon Harper; in the premiere of Klee Musings by acclaimed American composer Augusta Read Thomas; in the premiere of Eric Nathan’s Missing Words V, sponsored by Coretet; in Leah Reid’s Cloud Burst for piano trio and electronics; in Dale Trumbore’s Another Chance; and in a music video by filmmaker Amanda Alvarez Díaz of Astor Piazzolla’s "Otoño Porteño.” The Neave Trio’s latest project is Rising, a collaboration with Pigeonwing Dance, composer Robert Sirota, and choreographer Gabrielle Lamb. Rising is a meditation not only on rising temperatures and sea levels but also on humanity’s rising awareness of our connection to and dependence on the Earth’s oceans.
For more information, visit www.neavetrio.com.
La Mer – French Works for Piano Trio | Neave Trio | Chandos Records
Release Date: June 20, 2025 (Worldwide)
Recorded July 23-25, 2024 at Potton Hall, Dunwich, Suffolk, England
Camille Saint-Saëns (1835-1921): Trio No. 2, Op. 92 in E minor • in e-Moll • en mi mineur for Piano, Violin, and Cello
À Madame la Vicomtesse de Guitaut (née Anna Hoskier) (1892) [32:51]
[1] I. Allegro non troppo [11:10]
[2] II. Allegretto – Allegro – Allegretto – Allegro –
Allegretto (poco meno) – A tempo ma tranquillo [5:44]
[3] III. Andante con moto [4:11]
[4] IV. Grazioso, poco allegro [4:13]
[5] V. Allegro – Allegro moderato [7:32]
Mel [Mélanie Hélène Domange, née] Bonis (1858-1937): Soir-Matin, Op. 76 for Piano Trio (1907) [8:16]
[6] Soir. Andante cantabile – Cédez un peu [4:19]
[7] Matin. Andantino – Più vivo [3:56]
Achille-Claude Debussy (1862-1918): La Mer (The Sea) (1903-05) [23:58]
Arranged by Sally Beamish (b. 1956)
Three Symphonic Sketches for Orchestra
À Jacques Durand – 1905
Arranged 2013 (revised 2015) for Piano Trio
[8] I. De l’aube à midi sur la mer [8:00]
[9] II. Jeux de vagues [7:51]
[10] III. Dialogue du vent et de la mer [8:05]
Total Time: [65:05]
Recording producer: Jonathan Cooper
Sound engineer: Jonathan Cooper
Editor: Jonathan Cooper
Front cover Photograph of Neave Trio by Lisa-Marie Mazzucco
Back cover Photograph by Lisa-Marie Mazzucco
Design and Typesetting: Cass Cassidy
Chandos Records Ltd, Colchester, Essex CO2 8HX, England