Cellist Trey Lee To Release New Album SEASONS INTERRUPTED in May

Trey Lee, the Hong Kong-born, Berlin-based cellist of international renown, will release his new album, Seasons Interrupted, scheduled for release on May 17 on the British label Signum Records. It is Lee's first collaboration with the London-based English Chamber Orchestra, the most recorded chamber orchestra in the world. The album also features conductor Emilia Hoving and pianist Georgy Tchaidze.

"With the cello as a platform, I seek a sober yet trenchant means to tell the story of our seasons, and, concurrently, create a musical narrative to account for how this crisis unfolds," writes Lee in his program note. "These works are expressions of human emotions that are open to interpretation and were not conceived to decry the climate crisis; however, I harness their emotive power to illustrate this story and to amplify this narrative when words alone do not suffice."

Looking through the prism of works by three composers from very different eras, Lee traces a narrative arc that considers the past, present, and a possible future of our current climate crisis, specifically the distortion of nature's four seasons. The album begins with Lee's arrangement of four lieder, or German art songs, by Franz Schubert, a composer whom Lee regards as a window into the past. The four lieder are Im Frühling, D. 882 ("In Spring"), Die Sommernacht, D. 289 ("The Summernight"), Herbst, D. 945 ("Autumn"), and Gefrorne Tränen (from Die Winterreise, D. 911) ("Frozen Tears"). "By highlighting man's emotional intrusion into nature's tranquility, is Schubert already alluding to humanity's role in altering the course of nature?" Lee wonders in his notes, contemplating the sudden shift to minor mode as precursor of dread in the otherwise peaceful portrait of spring in the first song. In his arrangement for the four lieder, Lee substitutes his solo cello for the original vocals (with accompaniment from Tchaidze), and responds from a 21st-century perspective to the original poetry set to Schubert's idyllic music.

In Seasons Interrupted, Astor Piazzolla's Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas ("The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires") represents the present. Lee's new arrangement for solo cello and chamber orchestra takes us through the four seasons and draws parallels between the industrial rise and frantic urban development of Piazzolla's 20th century and the climate crisis it has led to: "Today's world is powered by unrelenting progress and inventions, and, simultaneously, by unbridled depletion of the world's resources," Lee writes. "Instead of allowing the natural retreat of autumn to transpire, machines speed up the process to squeeze even more resources out of the land."

Finally, the remarkable Cello Concerto by the contemporary Finnish composer Kirmo Lintinen depicts one of many possible futures. In the concerto, dedicated to Lee, Lintinen paints a sonic landscape that the cellist and the English Chamber Orchestra interpret from the context of a climate-changed society bereft of the seasons as we know them. "This is an imaginary journey through four movements depicting a future arising from the effects of the environmental crisis," writes Lee. "Still, we are not condemned to this future just yet; it is simply one that many fear may come to pass if the world continues down its current trajectory."

The first movement, "Inizio - Dystopia," imagines a dystopia ravaged by climate change, with the solo cello struggling to rise above the gloom. "Gavotte - Modulation/Mutation" briefly looks back at the past - the Baroque period - before returning to the environmental catastrophe that we might be headed toward. In the third-movement cadenza, the cello symbolizes defiance in the midst of the cataclysm. "Salvation," the finale, alludes to the torment of climate change but ultimately re-introduces our longing for the end of the climate crisis, which bonds all of humanity.

To support the release of Seasons Interrupted, Lee performs with the English Chamber Orchestra on May 17 and 19 in Hong Kong; he joins the ensemble again on September 30 for its season-opening concert at Cadogan Hall, London, with a program that includes Las Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas.

For more information about Trey Lee and upcoming performances, visit www.trey-lee.com.

Seasons Interrupted
Catalog number: SIGCD791
Release date: May 17, 2024
Formats: 1 CD, digital stream, and download
Total timing: 1hr 1min 15 secs

Track list:

-4 Songs/Lieder for cello and piano-
Franz Schubert (arr. Trey Lee)
[1] Im Frühling, D. 882
[2] Die Sommernacht, D. 289
[3] Herbst, D. 945
[4] Gefrorne Tränen (from Die Winterreise, D. 911)
-Four Seasons of Buenos Aires/Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas,for cello and string orchestra-
Astor Piazzolla (arr. Trey Lee)
[5] Otoño Porteño
[6] Invierno Porteño
[7] Primavera Porteño
[8] Verano Porteño
-Concerto for cello and orchestra-
Kirmo Lintinen
[9] Inizio
[10] Gavotta
[11] Cadenza
[12] Finale

Trey Lee, cello

Cellist Trey Lee enthralls audiences with a virtuosity that combines intellectual sophistication with a profound depth of emotions. His concerto debut at Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage won him a standing ovation, with New York Times critic Anthony Tommasini declaring him "the excellent cellist...with enveloping richness and lyrical sensitivity." The late Lorin Maazel praised him as "a marvelous protagonist...a superb cellist" after conducting Trey in Haydn's C Major Concerto with the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Highlights of 2023 and 2024 include touring abroad with the Camerata Salzburg, English Chamber Orchestra, and solo engagements in Vienna, London, Paris, Milan, Budapest, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Trey has worked with notable musicians and groups that include conductors Vladimir Ashkenasy, Yuri Bashmet, Mikko Franck, Hannu Lintu, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Vassily Sinaisky, Dima Slobodeniouk, the orchestras BBC Philharmonic, Philharmonic Orchestra Radio France, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Netherlands Philharmonic, Tapiola Sinfonietta, the Moscow Soloists, and chamber orchestras of London, Mantova, Munich,Stuttgart and Romanian Radio.

Seeking to increase the expressive possibilities of the cello, Trey has re-arranged works including Piazzolla's Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, which he debuted with the Trondheim Soloists and followed with a tour of Norway. Wang Liping's The Dream of the Red Chamber Capriccio, co-rearranged by Trey, was premiered by Leonard Slatkin and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra in 2017. Furthermore, Trey has given world premieres of two pieces dedicated to him: Bright Sheng's The Blazing Mirage (recorded for Naxos) and contemporary Finnish composer Kirmo Lintinen's Cello Concerto. As an avid chamber musician, Trey is a member of Canada's award-winning piano quartet, Ensemble Made in Canada (known as EMIC).

Trey is a laureate of major international competitions, including First Prize at the International Antonio Janigro Cello Competition. His debut and recital albums were distributed by EMI with critical acclaim. In addition, Trey has been featured on multiple media outlets including a recital recorded for Deutsche Welle during the Covid lockdown.

Trey often performs at major events in support of various causes, including the launch of The IMAGINE Project with Yoko Ono, Hugh Jackman and ABBA's Bjorn Ulvaeus to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child at the UN General Assembly Hall. He is the founding artistic director of Musicus Society, which promotes cross-cultural collaboration of music internationally through performances and by nurturing young artists from Hong Kong.

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