This is the 10th anniversary for the trio, which is to say that they are still quite young as professional chamber music groups go. Despite their relative youth, the Trio Solisti play with what might be called "old-fashioned virtues." There is no hint of pandering or of cloying sentiment. It seems that they have never even seen reality TV.
Instead, what they deliver is musical discipline, clear thinking, superb preparation, and a centred musicianship that carries all before it. It is the performance values one has come to expect of legendary groups such as the early Julliard String Quartet or the Beaux Arts Trio - ensembles that in their day set the benchmark for quality in chamber music performance.
These "classical" qualities of performance are rare these days, when various forms of "cute" tend to substitute for clarity of musical thought. With the Trio Solisti, the true musical values are clearly the focus, and it was this sense of good musical health that marked their music-making.
The centrepiece of the concert-and perhaps the best performance of the evening, if only by a trifle-was Beethoven's "Archduke" Piano Trio. This was one of the most completely disciplined, balanced accounts of this famous piece I have heard live, every movement sounding better than the last. Playing of this quality tends to highlight the best music as special, and thus its was the sublime slow movement that created the most powerful impression. Here the nuance of the phrasing produced an individual emotional world for each of the variations.
The final movement, taken at a terrific clip, would have caused any normal pianist to come unglued, but Jon Klibonoff never faltered, the final pages some of the most exhilarating playing I have heard in a long time.
The other major work on the program was the little-played Trio in G minor by Ernest Chausson. A passionate work, and fiendishly difficult to play, this is French romanticism at its most fevered, qualities that marked this exceptionally brilliant performance.
Here, the vibrato of the string players was adjusted - intuitively, it seemed - to the style and sound of French-style string playing, something that gave the performance a remarkable sense of authenticity of style and manner.
Again, it was Klibonoff who was the anchor in this piano-dominated piece, but it was the strings that provided that passion in the melodies that seethes throughout the work. The program opened with Schumann's Phantasiestucke for piano trio, a little-played work by Schumann, but which found a committed advocate in the Trio Solisti. Three of the group's CDs were available at intermission, and they went like hotcakes. I bought all three.
www.calgaryherald.com/entertainment/Trio+Solisti+shine+Calgary
-The Calgary Herald, October 3, 2011
Trio Solisti headlines Dumbarton Concerts
"Dumbarton Concerts, Georgetown's excellent home-grown concert series, ended strong on Saturday evening with a performance by the appropriately named Trio Solisti: pianist Jon Klibonoff, violinist Maria Bachmann, and cellist Alexis Pia Gerlach. All three have respectable mid-level solo careers, and they come together and present trio repertoire with that approach, stretching the boundaries, as it were."
"This was smashingly successful in thier arrangement of Astor Piazzolla's Four Seasons of Buenos Aires: The keening solos, the smoky riffs and the pelvic-grinding feel of the music were brilliantly delivered. In the opening Dvorak Trio No 4 in E minor ("Dumky"), the music making was intense and enjoyable...all three meshed nicely when they had to. Klibonoff offered bothpower and sensitivity throughout."
-The Washington Post, April 4, 2011
December 7, 2010
GLASS HEART CD release on Orange Mountain Music
Bachmann/Klibonoff recital CD
Glass: Sonata for Violin & Piano (2008)- World Premiere Recording
Bach/Gounod: Ave Maria on Prelude in C major
Schubert: Sonata in A major
Ravel: Sonata Op Posth.
To Order on Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B004BOGTJ2/philipglasscom
TRIO SOLISTI joins Bill Capone and
Arts Management Group
January 2010
Trio Solisti is pleased to announce representation by
Bill Capone and Arts Management Group.
Please contact Bill Capone at his New York office for information regarding bookings.
212-337-0838
email: bill@artsmg.com
January 28 & 29, 2010
Performance Today broadcasts
"Music and Conversation with Philip Glass"
Music by Bach, Schubert, Ravel and Glass
with Trio Solisti and Glass Chamber Players
Taped at New York's Rockefeller University, Caspary Auditorium on 12/18/09
Program Jan 28:
Bach Prelude in C major, Schubert Sonata for Violin and Piano in A,
Glass Sonata for Violin and Piano (2008)
Program Jan 29:
Ravel Piano Trio
Glass String Sextet (2009)
www.performancetoday.org
Listen online for 7 days after broadcast PLUS video on PT website for one month which includes more interviews!
In New York City, shows are broadcast on WQXR-FM (105.9) on Sunday January 31, 2010.
Performance Today is broadcast on 250 public radio stations across the country.
HIGHLIGHTS of 2009-2010
November 2009
*11/1/09 Caramoor Center for Perf. Arts- all Brahms program with guest artists Hsin-Yun Huang, viola & David Jolley, Horn
*11/20/09 New York, NY Rockefeller University concert
December 2009
*12/3/09 Concert at The Kennedy Center, Washington, DC for
Fortas Chamber Series
*12/18/09 Rockefeller University, New York NY
Performance Today hosts a "Concert & Conversation with Philip Glass", performed by Trio Solisti and friends. Broadcast date TBA.
February 2010
*2/9/10 Houston, TX concert at Rice University for
Houston Friends of Music
"Trio Solisti- the most exciting piano trio in America"
-The New Yorker Magazine 4/27/09
THE WASHINGTON POST: CONCERT REVIEW
TRIO SOLISTI at THE KENNEDY CENTER
December 5, 2009
"
Modest Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" can be a splashy and exciting crowd-pleaser . . . The Trio Solisti played it in a fine arrangement by pianist Jon Klibonoff that preserved many of the colors and the clarity of Mussorgsky's original piano version but that spiced these up with clever assignments of roles to the strings. Klibonoff, violinist Maria Bachmann and cellist Alexis Pia Gerlach dug into the music with determination and had the chops needed to reflect constantly changing moods and states of energy. "
"The Mendelssohn Trio No. 2 in C Minor, Op 66 that opened the program fell on fresh ears and the performance, characterized by passion, lyricism, transparency and, in the finale, a sense of triumph, presented Mendelssohn at his most mature and romantic best. Both Piazzolla's "Four Seasons of Buenos Aires," in an arrangement for the trio, and a Passacaglia, written by Paul Moravec, also turned out to have big romantic inclinations. The Passacaglia didn't start or end that way. Moravec had the piano fluttering high, dry, rapid repetitions of the four-note theme over violin harmonics, and there seemed to be a promise of interesting variations to come, but an almost Brahmsian spirit took over as the music developed and dominated until a return to the opening sonorities."
-Joan Reinthaler
Trio Solisti's new CD - CAFE MUSIC
release date May 1, 2009
Bridge Records
Titled after Paul Schoenfield's popular work Cafe Music, Trio Solisti's new cd explores repertoire that lives in European cafes and the great concert halls of the world.
From Piazzolla's tangos and Turina's Spanish flair to the jazz infused music of Schoenfield and Gershwin, this program is music of high spirits, great passion, virtuosity performed by Trio Solisti.
Astor Piazzolla: Four Seasons of Buenos Aires
(arr. Bragato/Bachmann)
Paul Schoenfield: Cafe Music
Astor Piazzolla: Le Grand Tango (arr. Kutnowski)
Joaquin Turina: Trio No. 2
George Gershwin: It Ain't Necessarily So (arr. Bachmann)
CONCERT REVIEWS:
Trio Solisti, Café Style
By Christian Carey
MusicalAmerica.com May 1, 2009
NEW YORK – Although not a common practice today, front-and-center
music-making in cafes is a time-honored tradition, stretching at least
as far back as Bach’s time. On April 24 in an upstairs room at Judson
Memorial Church, Trio Solisti presented a concert in café style,
complete with round tables as well as conventional seating, creating
an appropriately informal atmosphere that included much between-pieces
banter. The program included chamber pieces by Joaquin Turina, Paul
Schoenfield, and Paul Moravec, as well as arrangements of works by
George Gershwin and Astor Piazzolla.
The trio -- violinist Maria Bachmann, cellist Alexis Pia Gerlach and
pianist Jon Klibonoff -- excels at presenting “light classical” fare
in a manner that seems anything but lightweight. The concert’s opener,
Piazzolla’s “Le Grand Tango” emphasized the incendiary side of the
form, with Bachmann using judicious portamento, sustained notes
aflutter with vibrato and generous, warm tone. Gerlach, a slightly
cooler player, was an excellent foil, offering sultry countermelodies
and many wide-ranging leaps with nary a misstep, while Klibonoff
articulated dance rhythms with muscular clarity.
Bachmann’s arrangements of “Porgy and Bess” selections were another
highlight, featuring sumptuous, soaring violin lines in “Summertime,”
a gracefully swinging cello solo in “It Ain’t Necessarily So” and some
suave chord progressions in “There’s a Boat Dat’s Leavin’ Soon for New
York.” Robert Russell Bennett’s keyboard arrangement of “Bess You Is
My Woman Now” showcased Klibonoff’s virtuosity. Spanish composer
Joaquin Turina (1882-1949) spent a number of years in Paris, which
accounts at least partially for the impressionist harmonic touches in
Trio No. 2 in B minor, Op. 76, with its rich modality and whole-tone
scales. Spanish influences are present as well; the middle movement is
cast as a jota, a lilting folk dance, and the outer movements offer
similarly folk-inflected, long-breathed melodies, often scored for
strings in octaves, executed handsomely by Bachmann and Gerlach.
Composer Paul Schoenfeld calls his “Café Music” (1986), “an attempt to
write a kind of high class dinner music.” It’s the kind of crossover
piece that makes classical purists shudder; indeed, the middle
movement, an elaborate cocktail piano ballad, is a bit mawkish. But
otherwise it is great fun, and the trio seemed to revel in its
dizzying, dovetailing entrances and bumptious swing. The piece’s
finale is filled with thunderous tutti passages and breakneck-paced
filigrees that would shatter the fourth wall at any restaurant!
Soprano Amy Burton joined the trio for the local premiere of composer
Paul Moravec’s arrangement of his song set, “Vita Brevis” -- five
short poems encapsulating the life story from birth to death. In his
remarks before the performance, Moravec pointed out that the cycle’s
trajectory began with darker themes and moved toward optimism. Thus,
James Agee’s “Lullaby” paints a bleak picture of the world outside the
crib, which Moravec appropriately depicts with an ice cold harmonic
palette. “Mezzo Cammin,” Dante’s meditation on midlife anxiety, has a
restive quality, with angular lines in both voice and instruments.
Mary Frye’s “In Remembrance,” an afterlife poem, receives the most
lustrous treatment, with its sumptuously triadic final cadence
eradicating any memory of the cycle’s stoicism. Burton sang with
beautiful tone, sensitively shading dynamic nuances, although the
vaulted Judson space occasionally obscured the clarity of her words.
The trio’s accompaniment carefully balanced with and buoyed Burton’s
most luxuriant lines.
The concert closed with Piazzolla’s “Four Seasons of Buenos Aires,” in
an arrangement by José Brugato subsequently embellished by Bachmann.
The violinist indulged a penchant for special effects, including
playing behind the bridge to emulate cricket sounds and searing
double-stopped glissandos. Gerlach’s soloing was particularly lovely
here, capturing a lyrical cantabile quality in the piece’s more
reposeful passages. While the program lasted more than two hours, at
its conclusion, no one seemed to want to dispel the delightful
ambience this talented chamber ensemble had so successfully created.
Copyright © 2009, Musical America
Trio Solisti in Concert in New York
"The lighthearted, non-traditional program ignored classic chamber music altogether to celebrate the recent release of the Trio's latest CD, "Cafe Music."
True to form, the Trio's concertizing was an adrenaline rush, soaring, sexy and sonorous, with the players bouncing off one another, digging deeper and deeper to deliver unbridled, rich-toned emotional content."
-Telluride Inside...and Out 4/25/09
On Friday, May 29th, Performance Today will broadcast the World Premiere of Philip Glass's Sonata for Violin and Piano (2008) written for violinist Maria Bachmann and pianist Jon Klibonoff.
Performance Today host Fred Child interviewed Maria about the work, and the 3 movement Glass Sonata (approx. 23 minutes) will be aired in its entirety.
To listen online or to find out where and when Performance Today is broadcast
in your area, please visit: www.performancetoday.org
The show is available online for 7 days after broadcast on May 29th- and there will be additional portions of the interview online. American Public Media’s Performance Today is broadcast on 250 public radio stations across the country.
Upcoming performances of Philip Glass Sonata for Violin and Piano:
July 2 - Telluride MusicFest in Telluride, CO
August 8 - Maverick Concerts in Woodstock, NY
September 20 & 21- San Francisco, CA Marin House Concert Series
To view video of Bachmann/Klibonoff live performance on WITF radio of the beautiful slow movement of the Glass Sonata for Violin and Piano, go to:
http://witfnewreleases.blogspot.com/2009/03/witf-listeners-get-sneak-preview-of-new.html
Trio Solisti performs LIVE on WQXR/FM, the largest classical radio station in the US, on Tuesday, April 21st from 4:30-5PM (EST)
The Trio plays selections from their new CAFE MUSIC cd, and a portion of the Philip Glass Sonata for violin and piano (2008). They will be interviewed about the new cd, and the upcoming concert on April 24th at Judson Church in
New York. (concert at 8PM at 55 Washington Square South)
To hear Trio Solisti live on April 21st, tune to 96.3FM in New York area OR listen online at: www.wqxr.com at 4:30PM (EST)
(listen online on demand until 5/30/09)
World Premiere Performance of
Philip Glass Sonata for Violin and Piano (2008)
Bachmann/ Klibonoff at Whitaker Center for Performing Arts, Harrisburg, PA 2/28/09
"The texture might remind you of Mozart, but there were times that were pure Schubert...a sense of forward motion, building tension very subtly without going to the extremes...stunning."
www.marketsquareconcerts.blogspot.com
World Premiere Performance of
Philip Glass Sonata for Violin and Piano (2008)
Whitaker Center for Performing Arts, Harrisburg, PA
2/28/09
The Headlines .....
September 2008:
Trio Dazzles Salt Lake Chamber Music Fans
"Trio Solisti is making a big splash on the chamber music scene, and for good reason. Members of the trio exhibit consummate musicianship and impeccable technique. Their artistry is nearly unsurpassed among piano trios, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to consider them the premiere ensemble of its kind in the United States today. The trio's debut performance here was a remarkable tour de force presentation that only underscored its astonishing talent."
(read full review below)
March 2009:
Trio Solisti performs World Premiere of Paul Moravec's Vita Brevis
with soprano Amy Burton
(read more below)
June 25-July 5, 2009:
Philip Glass joins Trio Solisti in Telluride, CO as Composer-in-Residence at Telluride MusicFest 2009
Festival Theme: "Celebrating Felix Mendelssohn and Philip Glass"
(for festival details, go to MusicFest page)
December 2009:
Trio Solisti performs at The Kennedy Center in Washington, DC on
December 3, 2009. The Trio makes their debut on the prestigious Fortas Chamber Series with music of Mendelssohn, Piazzolla, Moravec, and Mussorgsky.
CMMB Commissions Kevin Puts for Trio Solisti
A major commissioning initiative has been launched by Chamber Music Monterey Bay (CMMB) and it's Executive Director, Amy Anderson.
CMMB has commissioned four composers to write works over the next several years. The project includes a commission from one of America's most sought after young composers, Kevin Puts, who writes a work for Trio Solisti and clarinet to be premiered in 2012 on the CMMB Concert Series in Carmel, CA.
(read more below)
Recent Reviews
Trio dazzles Salt Lake chamber music fans
By Edward Reichel Deseret News Sept. 18, 2008
TRIO SOLISTI, Libby Gardner Concert Hall, Salt Lake City, UT
Trio Solisti is making a big splash on the chamber music scene, and for good reason. Members of the trio exhibit consummate musicianship and impeccable technique. Their artistry is nearly unsurpassed among piano trios, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to consider them the premiere ensemble of its kind in the United States today. The trio's debut performance here was a remarkable tour de force presentation that only underscored its astonishing talent.
Ravel's trio is a delectable work, one of his lushest perhaps, and certainly one of his most sensuous. The three players captured the bewitching loveliness of the music with their vivid and richly textured playing. It was impassioned, effusive and stunningly expressive.
Piazzolla expressed the soul of Buenos Aires in his tangos. His music is earthy and it feels a little rough around the edges, yet that is only an illusion. His music is quite refined in expression and bold in its emotions — and that's how Trio Solisti played his "Four Seasons." The trio certainly knew how to bring the work to life with its arresting and bold reading.
The threesome gave a dramatic reading of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition that brought out the dynamic scope of the work compellingly. And while Klibonoff's playing overpowered his partners rather too frequently, it was nevertheless an impressive effort — it was adventurous, striking and forceful in effect.
CMMB Commissions Kevin Puts for Trio Solisti
A major commissioning initiative has been launched by Chamber Music Monterey Bay (CMMB) and it's Executive Director, Amy Anderson.
CMMB has commissioned four composers to write works over the next several years. The project includes a commission from one of America's most sought after young composers, Kevin Puts, who writes a work for Trio Solisti and clarinet to be premiered in 2012 on the CMMB Concert Series in Carmel, CA.
Trio Solisti is honored to be chosen as one the the four groups for whom these commissions are created, and we look forward to premiering and touring with the new work by Mr. Puts.
Chamber Music Monterey Bay's commission series is entitled: ARC of LIFE Inspired by Bill Viola's "Going Forth By Day"
With "Going Forth By Day", Viola references fresco painting to create a powerful five-part projection-based installation that examines cycles of birth, death, and rebirth. Together, the suite of works create an epic articulation of the passage of nature's cycles.
Composers/dates/ensembles (to date):
Fall 2011 Joan Tower
Fall 2012 Kevin Puts: for Trio Solisti & Clarinet
Fall 2013 George Tsontakis
Fall 2014 Chris Theofanidis: for Miro String Quartet
NEW WORKS & Premieres:
Trio Solisti performs World Premiere of Moravec Vita Brevis
with soprano Amy Burton in March 2009
Paul Moravec has written a new work for Trio Solisti and soprano Amy Burton
to perform and record in 2009. VITA BREVIS is a gorgeous work Moravec originally composed for tenor and piano and has rewritten for Trio Solisti.
The World Premiere performance is scheduled for March 20, 2009 at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ.
CD REVIEWS
CD Review : Trio Solisti "Pictures at an Exhibition"
"...an ingenious arrangement of Mussorgsky's masterpiece by the
members of the trio...and a flawless performance of Ravel's luscious
A Minor Piano Trio by the group that to my mind has now succeeded
the Beaux Arts Trio as the outstanding chamber-music ensemble
of its kind."
-Terry Teachout Critic
The Wall Street Journal, About Last Night Nov. 28, 2007
GRAMAPHONE MAGAZINE Reviews Trio Solisti's "PICTURES" cd
"Trio Solisti's arrangement skillfully recasts Mussorgsky's musical gallery . . . fine characterful performances . . . well worth hearing. Tuileries is graceful
and witty, with Maria Bachmann’s clever solo violin evoking a nice fin de siècle Parisian flavour... a lively market at Limoges...an atmospheric Catacombs, with evocative piano work by Klibonoff...rounded off with a resounding
Great Gate of Kiev.”
-GRAMAPHONE Magazine Feb. 2008
FANFARE MAGAZINE Reviews Trio Solisti's "Pictures" cd
“The performance (Mussorgsky) is impressive, especially the multi-hued work from the string-players."
On the RAVEL Trio:
" ...surging sensuality... dramatic contrasts...the second movement is astonishing in its sparkling clarity...the hints of jazz in the second movement are wittily exploited here, too...in all four movements the ensemble is superb... an ardent performance and a welcome addition to the catalog, worthy to stand among the best recordings of the work."
-FANFARE MAGAZINE March 2008
TEMPEST FANTASY CD on NAXOS
"...beautifully crafted...a range of stylistic influences, showing off a nearly prismatic sense for timbral color, a constructed with a sure sense for architectural cohesiveness. This is intensely focused and lyrically expressed playing, with obviously deep affection for the music."
-FANFARE MAGAZINE (July/Aug 2007)
May 2007
BBC Music Magazine selects "THE RED VIOLIN" cd as
"NORTH AMERICAN CD of the MONTH" for May 2007
Maria Bachmann, violin & Jon Klibonoff, piano
on Endeavour Classics
"This programme demands interpretive and dynamic flexibility of exceptional sensitivity and Maria Bachmann proves more than equal to the task with a range of tonal shadings and exquisite bow- work that ensures these coruscating scores tingle with life and energy...thrilling abandon that never compromises absolute technical command."
-BBC Music Magazine ***** Performance ***** Sound
Trio Solisti's Upcoming CDs:
October 2008- LENNON & MORAVEC Trios on Bridge
John Anthony Lennon's Sirens and Paul Moravec's evocative Passacaglia (2005) written for Trio Solisti. This is part of a multi-CD recording project for The American Academy in Rome.
May 2009- CAFE MUSIC on Bridge
Trio Solisti's exciting performances of ever popular works including Paul Schoenfield's Cafe Music, Astor Piazzolla's Four Seasons of Buenos Aires and
Le Grand Tango, Turina's Trio No. 2, and Gershwin's It Ain't Necessarily So.
SUMMER 2009....
Trio Solisti will perform at numerous festivals including Maverick Concerts
in Woodstock, NY, St. Petersburg Museum of Art in St. Petersburg, FL, Music at Gretna in Mt. Gretna, PA, Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA, Music and More Series in New Marlborough, MA and Telluride MusicFest in Telluride, CO.
Trio Solisti is the founding ensemble of Telluride MusicFest which celebrates it's 7th Anniversary in summer 2009. Philip Glass is the composer-in-residence at Telluride MusicFest in 2009. Guest Artists at Telluride MusicFest include cellist Wendy Sutter, Hsin-Yun Huang and David Harding on viola, and Ayano Ninomiya on violin. The theme of the 2009 festival is
"Celebrating Felix Mendelssohn and Philip Glass."
The trio and guests perform 5 concerts which includes music of Mendelssohn, Glass, Beethoven, Ravel, Brahms, Schumann, Schoenfield, and more. The artists also perform a KIDS concert for the children enrolled in the summer program of Telluride Academy.
For more info go to: www.telluridemusicfest.com
RADIO BROADCASTS:
Trio Solisti on "Performance Today" National Broadcast
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Trio Solisti playing Paul Moravec’s Scherzo on 10/7/06 at
Troy Chromatic Concerts in Troy, NY.
American Public Media's Performance Today is heard by over 1.4 million listeners each week on 250 member radio stations around the country.
The program is available for on-demand listening on:
www.performancetoday.org for seven days from the date of broadcast.
Trio Solisti on "Performance Today" National Broadcast
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Trio Solisti playing Rachmaninoff Elegiac Trio No. 1 on 8/2/06 at
Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival, Cooperstown, NY.
American Public Media's Performance Today is heard by over 1.4 million listeners each week on 250 member radio stations around the country.
The program is available for on-demand listening on:
www.performancetoday.org for seven days from the date of broadcast.
Trio Solisti on "Performance Today" National Broadcast
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Trio Solisti playing Paul Moravec’s Scherzo on 10/7/06 at
Troy Chromatic Concerts in Troy, NY.
American Public Media's Performance Today is heard by over 1.4 million listeners each week on 250 member radio stations around the country.
The program is available for on-demand listening on:
www.performancetoday.org for seven days from the date of broadcast.
Trio Solisti on "Performance Today" National Broadcast
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Trio Solisti performs Turina Trio No. 2 in B minor, Op. 76 in Portland, OR
on October 17, 2006 at Lincoln Theater.
Trio Solisti on NPR's "Performance Today" National Broadcast Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Trio Solisti performing Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition at the Cooperstown Chamber Music Festival on 8/3/05.
Trio Solisti on NPR's "Performance Today" National Broadcast Monday, September 13, 2004
Trio Solisti playing Ravel Trio at The University of Georgia in Athens, GA
on 1/17/04.
Trio Solisti on NPR's "Performance Today" National Broadcast Wednesday, April 7, 2004
It's Trio Solisti performing 2004 Pulitzer Prize winner Paul Moravec's Tempest Fantasy on 9/20/03 at Grand Canyon Music Festival. Tempest Fantasy was written for Trio Solisti.
RECENT REVIEWS & QUOTES:
TRIO SOLISTI’s April 2006 DEBUT at WOLF TRAP [read more]
“Trio Solisti dove into the music's unrelenting passion with zealous abandon.....at times, zeal gave way to tender lyricism in a transcendent performance.” - The Washington Post
TRIO SOLISTI at Town Hall, New York, NY,
for The People's Symphony Concerts, March 2005
"
...the performance was consistently brilliant...an incisive account of Ravel’s extraordinary Trio in A minor....dangerous and radical…and compelling."
-The New York Times
TRIO SOLISTI at The Kennedy Center, Nov. 2004
Washington, DC
Trio Solisti: Just the Ticket
" sophisticated and decisive...Their musicality was marked by a hyperconsciousness of melody and balance, pursued with dramatic muscle and dynamic limberness." - The Washington Post
TRIO SOLISTI at Troy Chromatic Concerts,
Troy Savings Bank, Troy NY 10/8/06 [read more]
“Trio Solisti played with rich lush tones, which were amazingly varied in their shadings.... passionate and technically brilliant...” - Schenectady Gazette
TRIO SOLISTI at Chamber Music Monterey Bay,
Sunset Center Carmel, CA 10/15/06 [read more]
“Violinist Maria Bachmann, cellist Alexis Pia Gerlach, and pianist Jon Klibonoff make a sizzling combo of musical artists....fiery intensity.... masterful and lyrical ” - The Monterey Herald
The Washington Post April 24, 2006
Trio Solisti at Wolf Trap Opening a concert with a work as monumental and all-consuming as Brahms's Piano Trio, Op. 87, is risk-taking in the extreme. Playing at the Barns at Wolf Trap on Friday, the Trio Solisti (violin, cello and piano) dove into this music's unrelenting passion not only without mishaps but with zealous abandon, poignantly attending to the work's restless dissonances with a knowing grasp of its tightly interwoven counterpoint. At times, zeal gave way to tender lyricism in a transcendent performance.
While traces of central European melodiousness occasionally crop up in the Brahms, they are at the heart of the next work -- Bartok's "Contrasts" for violin, clarinet and piano -- the clarinet part having once been played by Benny Goodman. Offering every possible timbre and more on his clarinet, David Krakauer, who joined violinist Maria Bachmann, cellist Alexis Pia Gerlach and pianist Jon Klibonoff for this piece, pitted Bartok's cleverly urban street sounds against Bachmann's brilliant fiddling style of the onetime Transylvanian countryside, the violin strings unconventionally tuned.
Paul Moravec's "Tempest Fantasy," honored with a Pulitzer Prize in 2004, was the evening's centerpiece. Joined again by Krakauer (sometimes on bass clarinet), the trio lent emotional resonance and rhythmic inevitability to Moravec's torrents of notes.
-Cecelia Porter
SOLISTI TERRIFIC IN TROY PERFORMANCE
October 8, 2006 Schenectady Gazette TROY -- Trio Solisti opened the 110th season of the Troy Chromatic Concerts Saturday night at the Troy Savings Banks Music Hall with a splendidly performed concert. Violinist Maria Bachmann, cellist Alexis Pia Gerlach and pianist Jon Klibonoff, in their second appearance on the series, were evenly matched, passionate and technically brilliant in the three works on the program. They also showed they had a fine feel for a phrase and an excellent sense of style, as each of the three works were quite different.
They began with what Bachmann told the small crowd was a "mammoth" work by Franz Schubert, his Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat Major. Never published in his lifetime and only premiered at someone's home one year before his death in 1828, the four movements glisten with a joyous elan. Melodies soar in a natural kind of lyricism. His writing is transparent and has a kind of purity that needs little to bring it to life.
The trio applied a light, well articulated style and were very careful with every detail. They showed a lot of showmanship with their snappy phrase endings and were not shy at taking a few liberties with tempos, like slowing a few bars of music down to better set off the new material that was coming.
Gerlach was particularly intense as she played -- her face radiated her emotion.
Yet everyone played with a lot of feeling and were careful to not let it get out of hand but to keep the pacing smooth. The first movement, which is the longest, had a lot of ebbs and flows. The slower second movement was wonderfully serene and the third was immaculate, very bright and strongly controlled. The final movement was a frolic and very finely etched with a splashy coda.
Paul Moravec wrote Scherzo for the Trio in 2002 as a brief rousing encore. Bachmann said it was a "minature bon bon" and indeed it was. Faintly reminiscent of Bartok's rhythmic percussiveness, it was very jazzy, exciting, had lots of color and was technically demanding. The trio was terrific.
The entire second half was devoted to Tchaikovsky's Piano Trio in A minor, which he dedicated to the memory of his mentor, Nikolai Rubinstein, who died March 23, 1881. The work is unusual in that there are two movements with the second written as a theme and 12 variations. Klibonoff excelled in a part more like Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto -- the string writing was even more orchestral.
The trio dug in and played with rich lush tones, which were amazingly varied in their shadings. The melody was typically dramatic in the first movement and fairly simple in the second. The variations were usually short and changed moods, tempos and styles frequently. The best were the wonderful grand dance in the sixth and the fiery yet resolute final that ebbed away to nothing.
- Geraldine Freedman
ON TRIO SOLISTI at CHAMBER MUSIC
MONTEREY BAY Carmel, CA
10/15/06 MONTEREY HERALD Chamber Music Monterey Bay opens 40th season in style.
Saturday evening at Sunset Center , CMMB launched its 40th year with a party and a performance by Trio Solisti, highlighted by a performance of the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Tempest Fantasy" by Paul Moravec with guest clarinetist Alan Kay. As a drop-in artist of local renown, Stephen Moorer, artistic director of Pacific Repertory Theatre, joined the musicians for a reading of Shakespearian text that mirrored the five movement fantasy.
The trio opened with sensational performances of Joaquin Turina's Trio No. 2 in B Minor, Op. 76 and Brahms Trio 1 in B Major. Violinist Maria Bachmann, cellist Alexis Pia Gerlach, and pianist Jon Klibonoff make a sizzling combo of musical artists. The opening Turina work immediately established the fiery intensity of the trio, which made the sparks jump in this vibrant work with its Spanish flavors. The cellist played with such passion that at times you wondered at the stamina of her instrument, which, by the way, possessed a beautiful, charismatic tone. The ensemble gave a masterful account of the lyrical Brahms trio, with Klibonoff bringing it to a supple and dramatic finish at the keyboard.
Trio Solisti has received critical acclaim across the country for their live programs, media appearances and recordings. The Tempest Fantasy counts as a signature work for the trio, a spirited modern piece that allows them to show off their versatility and strengths as an ensemble while providing a unique opportunity for combining music and words in a concert program.
It was intriguing to witness Moorer's Shakespeare personae meet the talents of Trio Solisti spiced with Kay's clarinet magic. Those of us who appreciate local theater, especially Shakespeare, and also partake of the feast of world-class chamber music by CMMB and other presenters rarely have to opportunity to see them come together. In this instance, the music and narration blended well, with Moorer entering stage left alternately as Ariel, Prospero and Caliban, affecting costume and vocal changes as fit the moment. A knowledgeable Shakespearian actor, Moorer brought the Bard center stage in his own words. The two artistic disciplines, music and theater, created a captivating synergy lending fresh insight to the tale of the deposed Duke of Milan weathering his island banishment.
- BARBARA ROSE SHULER
