How the Beaux Arts Trio kept going against the odds

Obituarists for Menahem Pressler in the Times (London and New York) take the group’s success for granted, noting that it played 100 concerts a year,  in one instance 130.

What the papers fail to mention is that there was no money in it. Or, at least, not enough to feed three men and their growing families.

So, as Menahem Pressler told me, they would drive 500 miles through the night from one US hall to the next, taking turns at the wheel, eating from a vending machine if they could find one. Arriving at dawn at their next concert venue, they would check in at a motel, catch 4-5 hours sleep, then grind down for an afternoon’s rehearsal before yet another concert that night.

Only after the recordings started selling did they make enough money to catch a plane.

The obituaries are flawed by several more perceptual errors.