Honoree
Bernard Greenhouse
AWARDS
- President's Medal for Excellence (1985)
- LOCATION: Bloomington
- PRESENTER: John W. Ryan
BIOGRAPHY
Long considered the most eminent piano trio in the world, the Beaux Arts was founded in 1955 by Bernard Greenhouse, the violinist Daniel Guilet and the pianist Menahem Pressler. It was known for its refined musicality and remarkable continuity of personnel: Mr. Greenhouse, for instance, played with the group for 32 years until retiring in 1987. The trio, which in its last incarnation comprised Mr. Pressler, the violinist Daniel Hope and the cellist Antonio Meneses, disbanded in 2008.
For more than five decades, the Beaux Arts toured worldwide and made many celebrated recordings. The most esteemed is almost certainly its complete cycle of Haydn’s 43 extant piano trios, made for the Philips label during Mr. Greenhouse’s tenure. After making its debut at Tanglewood, the Beaux Arts became a fixture of concert stages throughout the world; in New York, it performed regularly at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The trio was also engaged by the world’s leading orchestras, performing, most notably, Beethoven’s fiendishly difficult Triple Concerto in C major. “The Beethoven Cripple,” Mr. Greenhouse liked to call it, with the characteristic humor that belied his outwardly formal mien. In 1969, Mr. Guilet left the trio and was replaced by Isidore Cohen. That was the only personnel change until 1987, when Mr. Greenhouse was succeeded by Peter Wiley. During his years with the trio and after, Mr. Greenhouse served on the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music, the Juilliard School of Music, Stony Brook University, Rutgers University and elsewhere. He continued teaching and playing until he was in his 90s.
Bernard Greenhouse was born in Newark on Jan. 3, 1916, and began playing the cello at 8. Bernard proved so gifted that he was admitted as a teenager to the Juilliard Graduate School, as it was then known. He was one of only eight cello majors there. (Today, the Juilliard School has nearly 60.) After graduating in 1939, Mr. Greenhouse was principal cellist of the CBS Orchestra. He continued his studies with the eminent cellist Emanuel Feuermann. During World War II, Mr. Greenhouse was the principal cellist of the United States Navy orchestra and played the oboe in the Navy band. After the war he sought out Casals, who was living in Prades, France, in self-imposed exile from Franco’s Spain. Casals agreed to meet Mr. Greenhouse if he donated $100 to Spanish antifascist causes and agreed to teach him after he heard him play. Mr. Greenhouse studied with him in Prades for about a year.
Returning to the United States, Mr. Greenhouse made his recital debut at Town Hall in 1946. Reviewing the concert, The New York Times called him “a well-rounded musician, as well as a gifted performing artist.” In 1948 he became the cellist of the Bach Aria Group, a post he held through the 1970s.
Mr. Greenhouse and his colleagues were the subject of several books, including two by his son-in-law, Nicholas Delbanco, “The Beaux Arts Trio” (Morrow, 1985) and “The Countess of Stanlein Restored” (Verso, 2001), about the painstaking restoration of his 1707 Stradivarius cello. Bernard Greenhouse died in May, 2011.
For more than five decades, the Beaux Arts toured worldwide and made many celebrated recordings. The most esteemed is almost certainly its complete cycle of Haydn’s 43 extant piano trios, made for the Philips label during Mr. Greenhouse’s tenure. After making its debut at Tanglewood, the Beaux Arts became a fixture of concert stages throughout the world; in New York, it performed regularly at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The trio was also engaged by the world’s leading orchestras, performing, most notably, Beethoven’s fiendishly difficult Triple Concerto in C major. “The Beethoven Cripple,” Mr. Greenhouse liked to call it, with the characteristic humor that belied his outwardly formal mien. In 1969, Mr. Guilet left the trio and was replaced by Isidore Cohen. That was the only personnel change until 1987, when Mr. Greenhouse was succeeded by Peter Wiley. During his years with the trio and after, Mr. Greenhouse served on the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music, the Juilliard School of Music, Stony Brook University, Rutgers University and elsewhere. He continued teaching and playing until he was in his 90s.
Bernard Greenhouse was born in Newark on Jan. 3, 1916, and began playing the cello at 8. Bernard proved so gifted that he was admitted as a teenager to the Juilliard Graduate School, as it was then known. He was one of only eight cello majors there. (Today, the Juilliard School has nearly 60.) After graduating in 1939, Mr. Greenhouse was principal cellist of the CBS Orchestra. He continued his studies with the eminent cellist Emanuel Feuermann. During World War II, Mr. Greenhouse was the principal cellist of the United States Navy orchestra and played the oboe in the Navy band. After the war he sought out Casals, who was living in Prades, France, in self-imposed exile from Franco’s Spain. Casals agreed to meet Mr. Greenhouse if he donated $100 to Spanish antifascist causes and agreed to teach him after he heard him play. Mr. Greenhouse studied with him in Prades for about a year.
Returning to the United States, Mr. Greenhouse made his recital debut at Town Hall in 1946. Reviewing the concert, The New York Times called him “a well-rounded musician, as well as a gifted performing artist.” In 1948 he became the cellist of the Bach Aria Group, a post he held through the 1970s.
Mr. Greenhouse and his colleagues were the subject of several books, including two by his son-in-law, Nicholas Delbanco, “The Beaux Arts Trio” (Morrow, 1985) and “The Countess of Stanlein Restored” (Verso, 2001), about the painstaking restoration of his 1707 Stradivarius cello. Bernard Greenhouse died in May, 2011.
