Menahem Pressler, who has died aged 99, was a much-admired member of the Beaux Arts Trio throughout the ensemble’s entire 53-year existence, a half-century of success chronicled by a catalogue of acclaimed recordings.

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The trio had been formed in 1955, Pressler joining with violinist Daniel Guilet and cellist Bernard Greenhouse. Renown swiftly followed – both on stage and in the studio. As recently as February this year they were described in our pages as ‘the archetypal piano trio’, and the impact they had on the genre and its repertoire, as well as their own distinct personality as an ensemble, was nicely caught in a Gramophone profile from 1978: ‘The vivid and characterful performances that one associates with the Beaux Arts Trio stem from the happy combination of three distinctive personalities who share similar aims and ideals. Add to this three exceptional musical talents and the result is a unique chamber group that has been the cause of a world-wide revival of interest in the wealth of music written for piano trio.’ Pressler, the piece also noted, ‘whose radiant piano playing reflects his sparkling, ebullient nature, is the most voluble and jocular member of the ensemble.’

In subsequent years, Guilet was succeeded by Isidore Cohen then Daniel Hope, while Peter Wiley and Antonio Meneses followed in Greenhouse’s footsteps. But Pressler remained throughout, the foundation to the ensemble’s identity.

Born Max Pressler in Germany, his family’s shop was attacked on Kristallnacht; while he and his immediate family managed to escape Nazi Germany – ultimately reaching Palestine – his uncles, aunts, cousins and grandparents were killed in concentration camps. Aged 17, he changed his name to Menahem, the Hebrew word for comforter.

Studies at Tel Aviv Conservatory led, in 1946, to a move to America and success in the Debussy competition in San Francisco. Concerto performances followed – including his US debut, Schumann’s Piano Concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy, at Carnegie Hall – as well as recitals, and by the founding of the Beaux Arts Trio almost a decade later he was already a successful performer as well as teacher, having begun a life-long association with Indiana University.

The great piano trios of the Classical and Romantic eras lay at the heart of their repertoire: it was with Haydn Trios that they won Gramophone's Recording of the Year in 1979. Reflecting on the set in our pages in 1984, Robin Golding said: 'When they came out, the performances were immediately recognised as being of the highest artistic quality, backed by exemplary recording techniques. The completed venture must be counted as one of the most remarkable and successful achievements in the history of the gramophone record.' Beyond the core trio repertoire, however, their recordings embrace music by Hummel, Arensky, Clara Schumann, Turina, Korngold, Zemlinsky, Ives, Rochberg, Baker and Rorem.

When the Trio retired in 2008, Pressler – by this stage 85 – did not, returning to solo performance. He later quipped that 'When I was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from Gramophone in 1998, I remember asking them if that meant I had to stop playing – because if that were the case I wouldn’t accept it. Luckily they said I didn’t! And after watching a solo recital DVD I made thereafter, one Gramophone reviewer commented that it was a pity I didn’t start a solo career sooner. So that is why at this point in my life I am.'

Pressler performed in Germany on the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, and in 2013, aged 90, made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic, in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 17, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. That year also saw a release of a well-received recording of Beethoven, Mozart and Schubert on La Dolce Volta label. Other recordings, both solo and collaborations, followed, a live recording of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 27 released in 2018, finding Jed Distler praising ‘Pressler’s hypnotic legato, concentration and sustaining power’.

Pressler married Sara Scherchen in 1949 and they had two children; she died in 2014. His partner since 2016 was Annabelle Weidenfeld, to whom he dedicated an album of Debussy music two years later, released on DG. Listening to Clair de Lune, Distler found that ‘one hangs on every note with bated breath, from Pressler’s perfectly placed pianissimos to the disembodied shimmer of his ever-so-slightly desynchronised chords,’ concluding that for the 94 year old, it marked ‘an auspicious Deutsche Grammophon solo debut.’

Menahem Pressler, pianist: born December 16, 1923; died May 6 2023