The Alma Trio was a classical

piano trio A piano trio is a group of piano and two other instruments, usually a violin and a cello, or a piece of music written for such a group. It is one of the most common forms found in classical chamber music. The term can also refer to a group of musi ...

established in 1942 at the ''Alma Estate'' of

Yehudi Menuhin Yehudi or Jehudi (Hebrew: יהודי, endonym for Jew) is a common Hebrew name: * Yehudi Menuhin (1916–1999), violinist and conductor ** Yehudi Menuhin School, a music school in Surrey, England ** Who's Yehoodi?, a catchphrase referring to the v ...

Los Gatos, California Los Gatos (, ; ) is an incorporated town in Santa Clara County, California, United States. The population is 33,529 according to the 2020 census. It is located in the San Francisco Bay Area just southwest of San Jose in the foothills of the ...

Original members

The original founding members of the Alma Trio were

Roman Totenberg Roman Totenberg (1 January 1911 – 8 May 2012) was a Polish-American violinist and educator. A child prodigy, he lived in Poland, Moscow, Berlin, and Paris, before formally immigrating to the U.S. in 1938, at age 27. He performed and taught nat ...

violin The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...

; Gabor Rejto,

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a Bow (music), bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), t ...

; and Adolph Baller,

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

. The members of the Trio had been encouraged by the famed artist,

, to establish themselves as a professional piano trio. Adolph Baller had emigrated to the United States in 1938 with the sponsorship of Menuhin, following harrowing experiences at the hands of the

Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

in Austria and Germany. After arriving in the United States, Baller was a guest of Menuhin and became his regular collaborating pianist, as he had been earlier in Europe.

New violinists

In 1953 Totenberg left the trio and was replaced by

Maurice Wilk Maurice Wilk was a well-known American violinist who performed as a member of the Alma Trio from 1953 until his sudden death in 1963. He was the original violinist in th Bach Aria Groupduring the late 1940s. The other original members of the Bac ...

, who remained their violinist for ten years until his sudden death in Fall 1963. A review in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', December 1, 1954, had this to say:

Having acquired a new violinist in Maurice Wilk, the Alma Trio has taken a new lease on life. It deserves to be long and prosperous — that is, if the ensemble continues to play as beautifully as it played last night when it opened the cycle of three
Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...
concerts that it is giving at
Town Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...
... few chamber ensembles play the Bonn master with such refinement of spirit and such subtlety of tonal shading."Alma Trio Opens Beethoven Cycle; With New Violinist, Group Offers Four Selections in First of Three Concerts"
by R. P., ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', December 1, 1954, p. 39

Violinist

Andor Toth Andor John Toth (June 16, 1925 – November 28, 2006) was an American classical violinist, conductor and educator with a musical career spanning over six decades. Toth played his violin on the World War II battlefields of Aachen, Germany; performe ...

joined the trio in the Spring of 1963. During the Fall of 1963, the Alma Trio made their first Russian tour. At the airport, Rejto was informed of a new rule that he would need a second ticket for his cello, and there were no remaining seats available. Faced with the impending cancellation of the tour, Rejto responded quickly, "But it is a bass

balalaika The balalaika (russian: link=no, балала́йка, ) is a Russian stringed musical instrument with a characteristic triangular wooden, hollow body, fretted neck and three strings. Two strings are usually tuned to the same note and the thir ...

." He was able to fly since that instrument was not listed by the airline.

New pianist

This membership of the Alma Trio (Toth, Rejto, Baller) continued until Baller's retirement in 1971, when pianist

William Corbett-Jones William Corbett-Jones is an American pianist who has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico and Central America, Europe, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Singapore. Education Corbett-Jones' private tea ...

joined the trio until it disbanded in 1976. From 1982 to 1986 the trio resumed performing with Andor Toth, Gabor Rejto and Adolph Baller for a few concerts mainly in the northern California bay area. The original cellist "Gabby" Rejto died in 1987, and the original pianist "Usiu" Baller died in 1994. Andor Toth lived until 2006 when he died of a stroke in Los Angeles, California, at age 81.

References

External links

Altenberg Trio Ensemble databaseRoman TotenbergGabor Rejto

Past performances

Online Archive of CaliforniaDallas, Texas Chamber Music Organization, Past ConcertsFriends of Chamber Music, Stockton, California Buffalo Chamber Music Society 1967 and 1970 (PDF file)

Discography

The following Alma Trio recordings in LP format are cataloged by th
Library of Congress
They are

s by Beethoven, Brahms, and Schubert.
Trio in E-flat major, op. 1, no. 1
Trio in B-flat, op. 11 Beethoven, Ludwig van, 1770–1827. , 955?, sound recording-musical , LC Control No.: 99572538]. Trio in B-flat, op. 11 Beethoven, Ludwig van, 1770-1827. , 955?, sound recording-musical , LC Control No.: 99572538
Trio in C minor (No. 3, op. 1)
Trio no. 11 (op. 121A) ten variations on "Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu." Beethoven, Ludwig van, 1770–1827. , 955?, sound recording-musical , LC Control No.: 99567526
Trio in D major for piano, violin, and cello, op. 70, no. 1 (Ghost)
Trio in E-flat major for piano, violin, and cello, op. 70, no. 2. ound recordingBeethoven, Ludwig van, 1770–1827. , text , LC Control No.: r 62001425
Trio in D major for piano, violin, and cello, op. 70, no. 1 (Ghost)
Trio in E-flat major for piano, violin, and cello, op. 70, no. 2. ound recordingBeethoven, Ludwig van, 1770–1827. , text , LC Control No.: r 62001424
Trio in E-flat major for piano, violin, and cello, op. 1, no. 1
ound recordingBeethoven, Ludwig van, 1770–1827. , text , LC Control No.: r 61001238
Trio in C major for piano, violin, and cello, op. 87
ound recordingBrahms, Johannes, 1833–1897. , text , LC Control No.: r 61001239
Trio in C major for piano, violin, and cello, op. 87
ound recordingBrahms, Johannes, 1833–1897. , text , LC Control No.: r 61001237
Trio in E-flat major for piano, violin, and cello, op. 1, no. 1
ound recordingBeethoven, Ludwig van, 1770–1827. , text , LC Control No.: r 61001236
Trio in E-flat major, op. 100
Schubert, Franz, 1797–1828. , 948?, sound recording-musical , LC Control No.: 2001564588
Trio in B-flat major, for piano, violin, and cello, op. 97
ound recording(Archduke) Beethoven, Ludwig van, 1770–1827. , text , LC Control No.: r 64001395
Trio no. 2, in E-flat major, op. 100
ound recordingSchubert, Franz, 1797–1828. , text , LC Control No.: r 61001037
Trio no. 2, in E-flat major, op. 100
ound recordingSchubert, Franz, 1797–1828. , text , LC Control No.: r 61001036
Trio in B-flat major, for piano, violin, and cello, op. 97
ound recording(Archduke) Beethoven, Ludwig van, 1770–1827. , text , LC Control No.: r 64001396
Trio in E-flat major, op. 100
ound recordingSchubert, Franz, 1797–1828. , text , LC Control No.: 72765783 {{Authority control, state=collapsed Piano trios Chamber music groups American classical music groups Musical groups from the San Francisco Bay Area Musical groups established in 1942 Musical groups disestablished in 1986 1942 establishments in California