Trio Accanto was formed as the result of a discussion between Marcus Weiss and Yukiko Sugawara in 1992. "It happened on the way home from the Witten Days for New Chamber Music in 1992. I talked a lot with Yukiko during the trip, and we came up with the idea for this combination of instruments. [...] I was especially interested in having a fixed ensemble in order to play pieces a number of times, because at that time I was playing in larger ensembles where only a few pieces with saxophone occurred in the concerts and these programs were often just played once."[1] The trio performed for the first time in 1994. Christian Dierstein was invited to be the percussionist after the first few concerts which had featured Edith Salmen-Weber in that role.[2] The first concert with Christian Dierstein was at Donaueschingen in 1994.
Trio Accanto plays exclusively works for the three instruments together. The group's members do not play solos or duos in trio concerts, nor does the trio play with additional guests artists.
In the past there have been projects with voice, including works by Bernhard Lang and Dieter Schnebel. These are however no longer in the active repertoire of the Trio. Similarly, in the past members have played solo works during the concerts. For example, on 6 August 2008, at the NDR Rolf-Liebermann-Studio in Hamburg (during the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival), Marcus Weiss gave the world premiere of Stockhausen's EDENTIA for soprano saxophone and electronics (from KLANG). (In the same concert the trio gave the premiere of Lachenmann's Berliner Kirschblüten.)[7]
Trio Accanto has been very active in education, promoting tours of several different children's programmes, including specially written works by Helmut Lachenmann, Martin Smolka, Thomas Kessler and others. These works are still in the trio's repertoire, in as much as they fit into the current programming concept.
Trio Accanto have in recent years begun recording the highlights of its repertoire for Wergo, in purpose-made studio recordings. The first of these, Funambules,[10] was released in December 2016 and featured music by Georges Aperghis, Rolf Riehm, Johannes Schöllhorn and Stefan Prins, all pieces commissioned by the trio in the first year of Hodges' membership. The second, Songs and Poems, was released in April 2018 and features music by Aldo Clementi, Andreas Dohmen, Wolfgang Rihm, Hans Thomalla and Walter Zimmermann, all of which (apart from Dohmen) are major works from the Trio's "old repertoire" which were not recorded by the Trio in earlier decades. The third CD, Other Stories was released in April 2020, and includes four previously unrecorded works by Helmut Lachenmann – two versions of Sakura Variations for trio, plus the solo piano versions of Marche Fatale and Berliner Kirschblüten – along with trio works by Michael Finnissy (Opera of the Nobility), Yu Kuwabara, Martin Schüttler and Martin Smolka.
A fourth CD has been recorded, solely consisting of works by Christian Wolff, including Trio IX – Accanto and recent Exercises. With Hodges, the Trio has also released a recording[11] of a work by Marina Khorkova.
Jim Igor Kallenberg: "Intergalactic mutant music: The music of Christian Wolff and the politics of 1968. Christian Wolff in conversation with Jim Igor Kallenberg", Wien Modern 31: Sicherheit. 28.10.-30.11.2018. Essays (Festivalkatalog Band 2), pp.90–95, esp. p.91 on Trio Accanto and Wolff's Trio IX – Accanto.
Related Research Articles
Helmut Friedrich Lachenmann is a German composer of contemporary classical music. His work has been associated with "instrumental musique concrète".
The Arditti Quartet is a string quartet founded in 1974 and led by the British violinist Irvine Arditti. The quartet is a globally recognized promoter of contemporary classical music and has a reputation for having a very wide repertoire. They first became known taking into their repertoire technically challenging pieces. Over the years, there have been personnel changes but Irvine Arditti is still at the helm, leading the group. The repertoire of the group is mostly music from the last 50 years with a strong emphasis on living composers. Their aim from the beginning has been to collaborate with composers during the rehearsal process. However, unlike some other groups, it is loyal to music of a classical vein and avoids cross-genre music. The Quartet has performed in major concert halls and cultural festivals all over the world and has the longest discography of any group of its type. In 1999, it won the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize for lifetime achievement, being the first and only group to date to receive this award.
Georges Aperghis is a Greek composer working primarily in the field of experimental music theater but has also composed a large amount of non-programmatic chamber music.
Nicolas Hodges is a pianist living in Germany.
A clarinet–cello–piano trio is a clarinet trio made up of one clarinet, one cello, and one piano, or the name of a piece written for such a group.
Toshio Hosokawa is a Japanese composer of contemporary classical music. He studied in Germany but returned to Japan, finding a personal style inspired by classical Japanese music and culture. He has composed operas, the oratorio Voiceless Voice in Hiroshima, and instrumental music.
The Ensemble Musikfabrik is an ensemble for contemporary classical music located in Cologne. Their official name is Ensemble Musikfabrik Landesensemble NRW e.V..
Oliver Martin Schneller is a German composer and saxophonist.
Walter Fink was a German entrepreneur and a patron of contemporary classical music. He is known for being a founding member, executive committee member and sponsor of the Rheingau Musik Festival, where he initiated a series of annual portraits of international composers of contemporary classical music.
Mark Andre is a French composer living in Germany. He was known as "Marc André," his birth name, until 2007, when he formally revised the spelling. He lives in Berlin. Andre's compositions durch (2006), ...auf... III (2007), and Wunderzaichen (2014) received multiple votes in a 2017 Classic Voice poll of the greatest works of art music since 2000.
The ensemble recherche is a German classical music ensemble of nine soloists, especially dedicated to contemporary music. Founded in Freiburg im Breisgau in 1985, they premiered some 500 works. They were awarded the Schneider-Schott Music Prize in 1995 and the Rheingau Musikpreis in 1997.
Hans Thomalla is a German composer, who has resided in the United States since 2002.
Marcus Weiss is a saxophonist and teacher. His repertoire includes all epochs, from the beginnings in impressionistic France to the present.
Brice Pauset is a French composer living in Germany.
Sakura-Variationen is a 2000 trio composition scored for saxophone, piano, and percussion by Helmut Lachenmann. It is written in the form of variations on a Japanese folk song about the cherry blossom called "Sakura Sakura". It was published by Breitkopf & Härtel. In 2008, Lachenmann expanded the work to Sakura mit Berliner Luft.
Yukiko Sugawara is a Japanese pianist born in Sapporo.
Rolf Riehm is a German composer who wrote stage and orchestral works as well as music for ensembles and solo instruments. He began as an oboist and music teacher and was later a professor of music theory at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main for several years.
Christian Dierstein is a German percussionist and academic teacher. He has performed internationally as a soloist and as a regular chamber music player with ensemble recherche and Trio Accanto, performing several world premieres. He has been a professor from 2001, with a focus on music beyond Europe and improvisation.
Stefan Hussong is a German classical accordionist.
References
↑ Marcus Weiss, quoted in CD booklet to Funambules (Wergo WER 73582), p. 24
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
