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An evening of intimate secrets and affection
"Chamber Music NZ's concerts are consistently excellent, fine
ensemble playing, good balance and accurate intonation being axiomatic,
but even so there was something special about this concert. It seemed less a formal occasion than a congenial evening of
musicmaking by friends, thoroughly comfortable with each other, who
wanted to share with the audience the intimate secrets of music they
loved playing.
The 'Archduke' trio, which opened the programme, was not Beethoven in
the grand manner but a sprightly, affectionate performance in which
meticulous attention to detail and nuance, including miraculously
accurate staccato playing, was carried off with a wondrous lightness of
spirit.
Gareth Farrís Ahi is firmly established in the New Zealand
repertoire but no one has ever played it as well as this. ... The piece is bound together by a
delicately beautiful melody with "the flavour of a French lullaby",
according to the composer, and the Kungsbacka Trio lavished as much
affection on to it as the mainstream works on the programme.
There was abundant strength also in Brahms' Piano Trio No 2 and the
playing throughout revealed a transparency of texture not always heard
in this composer. The sheer range of colour, mood and dynamic was a
revelation, from the muscularity of the opening movement through to the
boisterous high spirits of the last.
This performance was the essence of chamber music, just about as good
as it gets. It will be a surprise if any concert this season equals this
one. It was one of those rare occasions when you leave an auditorium
feeling the world is a better place than when you entered."
Dominion Post - Wellington - September 2007 "Since their 1999 success in the Melbourne
International Chamber Music Competition, the Kungsbacka Trio has taken
its place as one of the world's leading ensembles.
...
Schubert's E flat Trio, which took up the first half of the evening,
would not have disappointed anyone who has been won over by the
musicians' recent Naxos recording. They recreated it on the town hall stage, in a performance of staggering
dynamic range. Even in the most fragile moments, of which there were many, one felt the
tensile strength behind them. The many miracles included a massive
crescendo which virtually melted into the first movement's second
subject. By the development section, one was entranced by the subtle partnership
of Malin Broman's violin and Jesper Svedberg's cello.
Broman, introducing the work, speaking of the Swedish folksong which
inspired Schubert's Andante, perhaps explained why their playing of this
movement was so poignant. The two string players energetically pursued Simon
Crawford-Phillips's glittering trail in the Scherzo and the energy of
the finale did not let up for one semiquaver.
After the interval, the Kungsbackas responded openly to the
undeniable immediacy of Gareth Farr's Ahi. The opening Semplice
ma espressivo was almost crystalline in its clarity; the Scherzo, a
tumult of sound.
Crawford-Phillips introduced the final work with eloquence. Such were
the expressive possibilities of this medium, he suggested, that the
piano trio was the perfect setting for works of dedication. Smetana's
1855 piano trio, written on the death of his daughter, is one vast
outpouring of often raw feelings. The musicians caught the composer's shifting states of mind in the
first movement, navigating startling chromaticisms and jolts of style
until the climax came in a searing Finale.
Within 24 hours, the Kungsbacka Trio would be playing Beethoven's Archduke
Trio in Wellington. They gave us Beethoven as an encore; a buoyant
and characterful third movement from the composer's Trio, Opus 70 No 2.
Come back soon!"
The New Zealand Herald - Auckland - September 2007
Trio wins with warmth
"Chamber Music New Zealand has over the years brought some fine acts
to Christchurch. Many of them have been from the tungsten-tipped
school of European chamber music, where the sound is perfect, the
ensemble flawless, the scholarship dazzling, yet the listener remains
unmoved.
The Kungsbacka Trio ... could well have delivered something similar, being three
youngish musicians from that same European tradition. Yet somehow they
played with that little extra something, warmth or humanity or what
you will, that is the sign of real class.
Maybe it was their opening remarks ... maybe the
simple apology for a trivial confusion over the timing of the interval
helped, and maybe it was the choice of repertoire, but you did feel
you were listening to three real people.
But of course it was really the quality of their playing that did
the trick, the assurance of their performance allowing us to trust
them to get to the heart of the music.
The opening of the Archduke was bewitching, with a feather-light
touch maintained throughout the movement. The andante was indeed like
a prayer, soaring and ecstatic. Gareth Farr's Ahi was good to hear –
I wonder how many composers can make a piano trio sound like a
percussion instrument.
Brahms's second piano trio, Opus 86, was the grand finale and was
thoughtfully planned and beautifully executed. The encore piece was a
movement from Dvorak's Dumky Trio.
There was a lot on on Saturday night and so a rather smaller
audience than usual heard this fine group of real musicians playing
real music. "
The Press - Christchurch - September 2007
"... Beethoven wrote the
Archduke, Piano Trio No7 ... Kungsbacka violinist, Malin Broman promised
the slow movement was worth dying for. And it was - the slow movement is
the heart of the piece -- a holy calm pervaded me as the comforting,
serene music emanated the Adelaide town hall. ... The crowd agreed with
my feeling that the Beethoven was the high water mark of the concert.
... the trio played a Paul Stanhope (young Australian composer) piece
which I found discordant at first but was gradually swept up in the
trio's enthusiasm for the challenging and vigorous work. Johannes Brahms
Piano Trio No 2 completed the program - a happy, lilting work ... [that]
drove the appreciative crowd wild with delight. ... ."
The Independent Weekly
- Adelaide - August 2007
So this is what the fuss is about
"Since winning the Melbourne International Chamber Music
Competition in 1999, the Swedish-based Kungsbacka Piano Trio have been
building themselves a reputation at a fast rate of knots ... [and] have impressed festival and concert audiences
throughout the world with their maturity and confidence in approaching
the cornerstones of the repertoire.
The majestic Archduke was given just the right amount of space in the
first movement, setting things up for the jaunty scherzo - Broman and
Svedberg working off each other beautifully - and the glorious andante.
Crawford-Phillips control of pace and dynamic in the final movement was
a highlight.
Brahms' C major trio was no less enjoyable with Broman and Svedberg
shamelessly relishing the romantic unison melodies and Crawford-Phillips
once again wonderful in the scherzo.
As if this wasn't enough the Stanhope work [Dulcissimo Usignolo], which
opened the second half, brought audible gasps of delight from the
audience. ... Snatches of the original [song by Monteverdi] impinge on
some challenging excursions for the musicians in which they use various
effects like pizzicato and bowing near the bridge and even a few plucked
piano strings, ending in almost-celestial serenity."
The Manly Daily - Sydney - August 2007
"Their playing is unashamedly precise ... they
know exactly how they want to play and totally succeed in doing so."
Jyllands-Posten - Denmark - November
2006
"KPT have during their nine year long career
come to the forefront of international piano trio ensembles. ... the
balance between clarity and feeling is perfect." (6/6star rating)
Svenska Dagbladet - Sweden - November 2006
"Remember the name: with the Kungsbacka Piano
Trio you are assured a really good chamber music evening."
Jan Jacoby, Politiken - Denmark - October 2006
"TO BE SEATED in the round to hear three of the
most challenging set of pieces so far into the Old Market Coffee Concert
series intensified an already enveloping experience. Literally looking
over one player's shoulder, and into the eyes of another opposite takes
one yet deeper into the music and into the musicians' own instincts and
response to it.
The Kungsbacka brought a programme that was the most demanding for the
pianists among the ensembles so far heard. Englishman Simon
Crawford-Philips' versatility, stamina and sustenance of focus in three
piano-driven works explained why he is in such demand among chamber
music performers.
Swedish violinist Malin Broman and cellist Jasper Svedberg were in
immaculate and vitally accurate accord in their often subsidiary roles
as the Kungsbacka plunged into Beethoven's Opus 1 Trio in G, Charles
Ives' Trio and Rakhmaninov's Trio Elegaique in homage to the late
Tchaikowsky.
... The collective silence of those listening, between the dying final
note [of the Rakhmaninov] and the first tentative applause, was an
almost stunned one.
Such was the power of the Kungsbacka's performance that morning."
Worthing Herald - 2006
Are We Living Through a Golden Age for British
Chamber Music?
"The Kungsbacka’s concert showed signs of immaculate preparation
at every turn, yet the interpretations pulsed with inner life. Beethoven’s
G major Trio, sparked by the brilliance of pianist Simon
Crawford-Phillips, was satisfying and exciting at the same time. The
Largo was beautifully phrased, the final Presto was never a mere gabble
and the understanding between violinist Malin Broman and cellist Jesper
Svedberg was uncanny. The string players’ close collaboration was
perhaps even more important in the other works on the programme both of
which needed the devoted advocacy they received. Fauré’s late D minor
Trio found all three players breathing together, or so it seemed as they
kept this difficult work gently and carefully en the rails. And then
Rachmaninoff’s Elegiac Trio in the same key, cut from the cloth of the
CelIo Sonata, but lacking its luscious tunes, sprang off the page with a
similar unified impact. A Mozart encore set the seal on a remarkable
recital. Is there a better trio ensemble in Western Europe?"
The Strad - Wigmore Hall, London - June 2006
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Stunning trio will be a hard act to follow
"The Kungsbacka Piano Trio had the somewhat unenviable task of
bringing to a close the current Plymouth Chamber Music Series season,
where nearly every recital has just seemed to eclipse the previous high
spot.
But Malin Broman (violin), Jesper Svedberg (cello), and pianist, Simon
Crawford-Phillips, are such formidable musicians that their combined
presence was more than equal to the job in hand, and produced a truly
stunning performance which will be so difficult to better.
Opening with Beethoven’s Archduke Trio, the players despatched the
immense technical difficulties with consummate ease, and always with the
greatest attention to balance, shared musical phrasing and dynamics,
whether in the impish innocence of the Scherzo, or the gloriously
sustained tones of the slow movement.
Rachmaninov’s Second Trio Élégiaque is all about the piano, with
frequent passages of concerto-like writing, and where the string players
are often cast more as spectators to this dazzling display of sheer
virtuosity. Even here though, whilst the piano naturally dominated, it
never took over, and there were many exquisite moments where the muted
strings contributed some simply ravishing tone colours to the lushly
Romantic texture."
Plymouth Evening Herald - April 2006
"It is an exhilarating feeling when an audience
knows it has just been enthralled by a performance from young musicians
early in their career who are inevitably destined for greatness on the
world stage.
... [The] trio sent everyone home content, exhilarated and begging
for a third visit from this exceptional outfit.
Inverness Courier - 2004
"The trio, which has developed a strong
character in the seven years since it was formed, is surely one of the
elect".
Morpeth Herald - October 2004
"The trio extracted every ounce of emotion as
the mood swung violently from despair to joy to fury [Shostakovich Piano
Trio No 2]. For the fortunate few to have been there it was an
unforgettable experience.".
Newsquest Media GroupNewspaper - March 2004
"Nowadays, at this level one takes relaxed
virtuosity and intimate rapport for granted, but these players displayed
other virtues to an exceptional degree. First, their wide dynamic
range: from full-blooded tutti passages to pianissimos of rapt yet
ethereal delicacy. Second, their instinctive grasp of the music's
shape: each knew when to lead the argument but also when to give way to
one another. Third, their rich yet subtly nuanced tonal
palette."
Huddersfield Daily Examiner - February 2004
"Chamber music doesn't get much better than
this."
Jonkopings-Posten - February 2004
"You need a fairly detailed atlas to find
Kungsbacka on the map of Sweden but if yesterday afternoon’s recital
can be taken as evidence, these three talented musicians are already
putting the town on the map of music."
Toronto Star - December 2003
" ... a glorious performance that completely
overwhelmed the audience."
Norbottens-Kuriren - March 2003
" ... the telepathy between all three {players}produced
a performance of both precision and passion. ... and if (the Brahms and
Haydn trios) had been the only works to enthuse about, it would have
been an outstanding evening. But the piece which I think will remain
with me was the moving and wonderfully interpreted trio in G minor by
Smetana. ... This was playing of extraordinary eloquence and skill, and
it was greeted with the kind of applause that shows deep feelings have
been touched."
manchester online - Bridgewater Hall, Manchester -
December 2002
"There's no shortage of confidence among the
young players of the excitable Kungsbacka Trio .... The Haydn buzzed
along with chiselled energy, singed by the ferocity of the Kungsbacka’s
unswerving resolve. But it was clean and articulate, and in the
slow movement, where Haydn leaves space for the musicians to create
their own surprises, I found myself repeatedly sitting on the edge of
the seat ... At their best, as in the Schubert, Kungsbacka countered
their exuberance with a delicate handling of the music’s gentler
sentiments. And their best was pretty good."
The Scotsman - Edinburgh International Festival -
August 2002
" ... the Kungsbacka Piano Trio gave a
sophisticated yet fresh and ardent performance of Beethoven’s Archduke
Trio, graced by the piano playing of Simon Crawford-Phillips."
The Times - Wigmore Hall, London - July 2002
"... the young Kungsbacka Piano Trio included
Haydn in a lunchtime recital that reinforced its standing as one of
today's brightest chamber ensembles.
Its performance of Haydn's E flat major Trio Hob. XV:29 was spry, light
and inflected with lively accents; there was terrific gusto and
infectious abandon to the playing, underpinned by confident control of
dynamics and refined integration of the three instruments. The
Kungsbacka's perceptive definition of style was equally in evidence in
Dvorak's "Dumky" Trio, not the easiest of works to bring off
by any means but here fired by a momentum that gave a gripping sense of
cohesion to the music's capricious switches of mood. Vigour, passion,
tenderness, melancholy - Dvorak's emotional spectrum was fully explored
and eloquently communicated."
The Daily Telegraph - Wigmore Hall, London -
February 2002
... uncontainable delight
"In the three years since its formation, the Kungsbacka Piano Trio
has come far….The ebullience and energy of the players (Haydn
Hob.XV27), both as individuals and as a unit, were bracing….The main
attraction, though, was Schubert’s Trio in E flat major, D.929….Most
striking were the players’ seamless, instinctive level of
co-ordination, the way every corner was turned as a threesome, and their
uncontainable delight. The Kungsbacka has created a remarkable hybrid,
combining the deep-rooted instincts of a long-standing marriage with all
the excitement of the honeymoon."
The Strad - Wigmore Hall, London - March 2001
Happy days at Esterhazy
"The Kungsbacka play with a wonderfully exuberant, intuitive
ensemble. Their music radiates warmth and smiling good cheer. Their
performance of Schubert’s Piano Trio No.2 in E flat filled the hall
with positive tenderness."
The Evening Standard - Wigmore Hall, London -
December 2000
"…the maturity of their performance is
amazing….Flawless preciseness, homogeneous interpretation, subtle
touch and well-balanced tone marked the beginning of the concert, which
proved to be an outstanding musical experience… No wonder that the
Mendelssohn Piano Trio No.1 in the second half of the concert was
received with ovations."
Slobodna Dalmacija - Dubrovnik Summer Festival -
August 2000
The Kungsbacka Piano Trio impress
"It was a valuable opportunity to find out what it was that won the
Kungsbacka first prize at a recent Melbourne International Chamber Music
Competition. Clearly, it was partly a matter of technique, but above
all, as they demonstrated in an uncommonly passionate performance of
Shostakovich’s Trio in E minor, interpretative commitment."
The Times - Chester Summer Music Festival - July
2000
"Technically assured and musically beyond
comparision, there was a genuine, heartfelt feeling for chamber music
playing - an ensemble which, without exaggeration, could be said to have
a total joy of music-making only found amongst the very great."
Västerbottens Kuriren - Umeå Chamber Music
Festival - June 2000
When music becomes an obsession
"The Kungsbacka Piano Trio delivered a performance that was so
intense, intimate and all encompassing that the music became nothing but
an obsession. Over the years, I have heard a lot of chamber music at the
ProMusica Hall, but I do not remember hearing anything to compare with
this. The Trio had that quality of ensemble that makes chamber music
move beyond individuals to become a whole universe by itself."
Fyns Stift Stidende - Odense - June 2000
"The Kungsbacka Piano Trio gave a wonderful
recital of Schumann and Ravel, warmly received by the audience. As the
players passed the phrases on to one another, they gave the impression
that each was utterly confident that the others would be there to catch
the melody. In the first movement, it was hardly possible to distinguish
the different voices, so perfect was the feeling of ensemble."
Newbury Weekly News - Newbury Spring Festival -
May 2000
"Fresh from its triumph at the Melbourne
International Chamber Music Competition, the brilliant young Kungsbacka
Piano Trio seemed better than ever ..."
The Strad - February 2000
"One of the pleasures of this enterprise is
seeing an ensemble that is a real performing entity in which the players’
interdependence is integral....In this sense, the outstanding
competitors in the afternoon session were the Kungsbacka Trio, who made
a labor of love of the Schubert E flat....This was highly persuasive
playing - small wonder that it won the main jury prize for this section,
as well as The Age Critics’ Prize and the Audience Prize for the best
piano trio."
The Age - Melbourne International Chamber Music
Competition - July 1999
"This was mature, imaginative and well-shaped
playing and, from the first chord, it was clear the balance both of
sounds and of the artistic personalities was both more whole and more
complex."
Sydney Morning Herald - Melbourne International
Chamber Music Competition - July 1999
"Their playing was a revelation, especially in
the Shostakovich. They lived every second of it an edge-of-the-seat
performance for both players and listeners. Their Beethoven - the E flat
major op.1 no.1 was the best classical trio of the first round and
their Brahms B major was richly satisfying."
The Strad - Melbourne International Chamber Music
Competition - July 1999
"The beauty of the work [Ravel] is that it can
always sound spontaneous in a good performance. The Kungsbacka Piano
Trio certainly gave it that."
The Croydon Advertiser - Fairfield Halls - June
1999
"Their dynamic nuances feel genuine and well
considered. The musicians listen to each other and have an infectious
joy for making music. This is a youthful trio which will go far."
Saffle Tidning - Sweden - November 1998
"The three young musicians played with a
gripping intensity and deep understanding which both impressed and
surprised. The Kungsbacka Piano Trio created a very strong musical
experience which displayed both personal and artistic maturity."
Hallands Nyheter - Sweden - November 1998
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