Instrumental Ensembles
Haydn Trio Eisenstadt |
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| Harald Kosik piano | Verena Stourzh violin | Hannes Gradwohl cello |
The Haydn Trio Eisenstadt is renowned for its interpretation of Joseph Haydn’s works and has also made a name with performances of contemporary music. In recent seasons, the trio has performed at music festivals worldwide such as the Haydn Festival in Japan, the Haydn Biennale Vlaanderen in Belgium, the Venyssel Festival in Denmark, the Klangbogen Festival in Vienna and the festival at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow, among others. The trio has been touring throughout Europe, including Germany, Italy France, England, Ireland, Hungary, Israel, Turkey and Switzerland.
They opened the 2007/2008 season with concerts in the United States to commemorate the death of two important Viennese composers - Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Alexander von Zemlinsky. Chris Pasles of The Los Angeles Times wrote, “Pianist Harald Kosik, violinist Verena Stourzh and cellist Hannes Gradwohl played with devout concentration and superb cohesion....The trio has an audacious boldness and strength.... It was most attractive in the first movement, when adolescent bravado often yielded to melting sweetness, capturing the emotional flux of a young soul.”
The trio’s 2007/2008 concert cycle at the Haydn Festival Eisenstadt continues with all of Ludwig van Beethoven’s piano trios. Those trios will also be recorded on CD at the same time (5 CD-Box on Capriccio label). Additional recording activities in 2007 will include the completion of the entire Joseph Haydn Piano Trios and Haydn’s Scottish Songs. The ensemble will also record Joseph Haydn’s Concertini and Divertimenti. In all, 14 CDs will be ready for release as a result of these major recording activities. In 2007 the Haydn Trio Eisenstadt will be the recipient of the “Wiener Floetenuhr” prize, awarded by the Vienna Mozart Society (Wiener Mozart Gemeinde) for their complete recording of W.A. Mozart Piano Trios.
2008/2009 will include the forthcoming celebration commemorating
the bicentennial of Joseph Haydn’s death in 2009. A most ambitious
Composers Project has been launched under the project management
of Harald Kosik, entitled “Dedicated to Haydn.” (www.d2h.at)
This project will take place as part of the Haydn Festival program
in Eisenstadt. Remembering Haydn’s quotation “My language
is understood the world over,” six Austrian composers, six
composers from other European countries and six composers from all
other continents have each been invited to write a piano trio dedicated
to Joseph Haydn. These works will be performed in 2009 as world premieres
by the Haydn Trio Eisenstadt as part of their contemporary music
series entitled: ton.art.project.
The Haydn Trio Eisenstadt will appear as Musical Ambassador for the
Haydn city of Eisenstadt in tours to Kiev, Sarajevo, Potsdam (Musikfestspiele
Sanssouci), Hamburg, Bonn (Beethoven Festival), Malta, Turkey, England,
Scotland, Italy and the United States.
In 2006 Austria celebrated both Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the Austrian writer Ingeborg Bachmann. As part of the ensemble’s “Bachmann to Music” project, the Haydn Trio Eisenstadt was the featured artist in New York, Washington, DC, Beograd, Dublin, Klagenfurt and Vienna. Additional tours took them again to the United States, Cyprus, Germany and Belgium. In the same year, the trio produced numerous CDs, including Schubert’s complete piano trios on 2 CDs, volume 8 of Haydn’s piano trios, 65 Scottish songs by Joseph Haydn together with Scottish singers Lorna Anderson and Jamie MacDougall on 3 CDs, and one CD entitled “Bachmann to Music.”
Since 2002 the Haydn Trio Eisenstadt has worked together with the highly esteemed Scottish singers Lorna Anderson (soprano) and Jamie MacDougall (tenor) to present all 429 Folksong arrangements composed by Haydn, both in the concert hall and on CD. This project, which is supported by a large number of sponsors, is supervised by the Scottish musicologist Professor Marjorie Rycroft from the University of Glasgow. This first ever complete CD edition of Haydn’s Folksong arrangements will comprise a total of 17 CDs. The first CD of the edition was released in May of 2004 (www.scottishsongs.at) In the same year the trio initiated a new concert series entitled ton.art.project which aims to be a platform for contemporary music within the context of other art forms (www.tonartproject.at)
Since its founding in 1992, the ensemble has become one of Austria’s leading chamber music groups. They received instructions in the chamber music class of the Vienna Academy of Music under Georg Ebert, and participated in master classes given by the Trio di Trieste. In 1994, the renowned Accademia Chigiana in Siena bestowed on the Haydn Trio Eisenstadt the Honorary Diploma for “best piano trio” and an award for “the best foreign contribution” of the entire festival. This distinction led to their being admitted to the Scuola Internazionale di Musica da Camera del Trio di Trieste which the ensemble attended for two years. Since 1995 the Haydn Trio Eisenstadt has presented the exclusive concert cycle named “The Piano Trio” at the Haydn Festival Eisenstadt held at the Haydn Hall at the Esterhazy Castle. The cycle features all 39 piano trios by Joseph Haydn as well as principal works of the piano trio literature.
Press Reviews
Pianist Harald Kosik, violinist Verena Stourzh and cellist Hannes
Gradwohl played the piece with devout concentration and superb cohesion.
Los Angeles Times, 5th of October 2007 - USA
This piano trio is quite definitely one of the best of the younger
generation playing in concert halls at the moment.
Ensemble - Magazin für Kammermusik January 2007 - Germany
After overwhelmingly enthusiastic applause the trio gave an encore
with the wonderful Haydn movement from op. 15 which called to us
as if from Bach’s era, hermetic in the counterpoint and noble
in spirit.
General-Anzeiger Bonn, Sept. 2007Germany ( BeethovenFestival Bonn
2007)
The Haydn Trio of Eisenstadt regaled us with an inspired performance
of this rather colossal chamber work (Schubert Trio op.100) that
I will not forget in a hurry.
There was a deep rapport that is an essential component to fine chamber
music.
Times of Malta, Saturday, 24th of Nov. 2007
“The Haydn Trio Eisenstadt presented themselves as a very
lively, pulsating ensemble. Hannes Gradwohl’s energetic, yet
warm cello stroke and remarkable musicality is pleasing even in the
sparse accompanying passages. Harald Kosik moves over the keys of
his grand piano with a light and gallant touch, while Verena Stourzh
(violin) does Haydn’s lightness full justice with her elegant
bowing technique and vivacious play.”
Mainzer Rheinzeitung, Germany, 19th of June 2006
“There is no current piano trio formation who is so intensively
committed to Joseph Haydn’s work as the Haydn Trio Eisenstadt,
founded in 1992. (…) The Haydn Trio Eisenstadt easily spans
the bridge across this varied complex of works; their play is convincing
in its relaxed mood, animation and tonal unity.”
Fono Forum, May 2006, Germany
“The Haydn Trio Eisenstadt never draws attention to themselves and follows the instruction to serve as accompaniment. And yet, they perform Haydn’s arrangements as witty cameos, tracing the character of the song lyrics with enthusiasm, enjoying their play and relishing many a harmonic turn uncommon for Haydn, barely shying away from a detour into modality.” klassik.com, January 2006
Haydn demands much if one wishes to play his music in a way to rivet
the audience. The Haydn Trio Eisenstadt is well able to master such
challenge: the musicians awaken Haydn’s piano trios to light,
witty life. Sometimes vehement, then again melancholic, sometimes
with sweet sounds and passionate the next moment, the three musicians
form an extremely well co-ordinated team and thus show the true character
of this music: wonderful music for intimate playing, without deep
secrets, but full of wit and emotion.
Neue Züricher Zeitung (Switzerland), 26th of July.2006