Reviews of the Munich Piano Trio

Live Performances

“The Munich Piano Trio sensitively traces the melancholy keynote, the mournful glow and the passion of the outbursts; it realizes the scale of emotional states in a rousing manner.” Tagesspiegel Berlin

“Here the three performers in their glowing interpretation brought out the last of sonority and flowing vocals from their instruments and brought their gripping interplay to a final climax. To speak simply of perfection would be too little. It was a maximum of artistic commitment, an extremely successful, admirable effort for a musical expressiveness reaching into the last layers of depth.” Süddeutsche Zeitung

“This is how one wishes for chamber music evenings! A varied, cleverly selected program, performers in the best mood, dynamic, gripping, mastering the most difficult passages with nonchalance, with discipline and lightning-fast harmony.” FAZ

“Thesis-antithesis-synthesis: Mauricio Kagel’s trio puts together the elements from the two previous pieces. Quiet and restrained, performed with delicate elegance by the musicians from Munich, the work begins, turns abruptly to somber mood, then violent outbursts. Superbly played!” Münchner Merkur

“The playing of the three musicians seems extraordinarily impulsive and fresh. Every measure of the music is fed from a spontaneous experience, and yet cohesion is guaranteed.” Luzerner Tagblatt

“Sonic delicacies that produce a culinary, elegant and transparent tonal picture distinguish the three musicians. This was particularly evident in an immensely exciting rendition of Brahms’ great Trio in B major.” Berliner Morgenpost

“Virtuosic élan and oblivious calm, transparency and compactness, attention to detail and sovereignty in the big line, agreement in all questions of musical statement and in the criteria of articulation, agogic, dynamics and rhythm together with their imponderables made listening an experience.” Die Rheinpfalz

“What this trio offered had star hour character. This applies of course to the technically sovereignly perfect execution, but even more so to the music itself. Rarely does the interested listening to a work turn into an inner conviction that it must be like this and not otherwise. Here it was so. What could be heard here was not the interpretation of a work, but the sonic realization of a love between the performers and the work.” Nürnberger Zeitung

“The Munich Piano Trio interpreted the work’s at times rapturously spherical, at times aggressively hammering, downright enthusiastically.” Münchner Merkur

“What an unusual concert evening that was! Even the very critical, spoiled listener, who is sparing with superlatives, will rate this chamber music experience as an artistic highlight. Here three musicians played with ravishing musical forcefulness, spiritually shaping and in a unity of interplay that could no longer be surpassed.” Schwäbische Zeitung

“The three excellent musicians celebrated another Beethoven climax and thrilled the audience with their perfect and highly musical, serious and humorous playing.” Münchner Merkur

“Chamber music finest hour: this is how the true classical music lover wants chamber music, which can only inspire in such a way in a live concert; in comparison to this, every technical reproduction, no matter how good, falls behind by classes.” Schongauer Nachrichten

“With a delicate, sensitive tone, the musicians, who were well attuned to each other, traced Beethoven’s expressive art. What a harmonious dialogue could be experienced in the Scherzo between violin and cello! Playful wit, seemingly written for the ensemble, sprouted from the interpretation of the last two movements.” Südkurier

“The interpretation was rousing. The three protagonists merged into a unified body of sound, in which the leading voice in each case was organically integrated.” Süddeutsche Zeitung

“Playing wit and mood, bouncy rhythms, thrilling tempi and tension-generating dynamics.” Rheinische Post

“After all, this trio ( Bernstein) was discovered for Europe by the Munich Piano Trio. No wonder they interpreted it with pride and perfect swing.” Süddeutsche Zeitung

“Always enchanting and fascinating how carefully the individual themes are treated and elaborated, how the character of the composition is holistically shaped and worked out.” Neuburger Rundschau

“The raging of the forces of nature was matched by the musical firestorm that the emotionalized and committed trio ignited in the old library. Music that literally gets to you because of the unruly, almost explosive vitality and joy of playing of the instrumentalists is not something you experience every day.” Süddeutsche Zeitung

“… so forceful, fanatical, so pulsating with power, so suffused with light, so of a dramatic presentation of all three players, so of a cast, as if here a single spirit made this marvel resound.” Fränkische Nachrichten

“A musical balancing act of the highest precision. … The season began with a high-ranking, even exemplary piano trio evening. … Stupendously succeeded in the technically most difficult passages, splendidly and completely homogeneously the overall sound in the cantabile passages.” Rheinischer Merkur

CD Recordings

The young Richard Strauss

“The Munich Piano Trio plays the pieces with noble precision (…) A contribution through which the later modernity of the ‘adult’ composer can only be properly understood.” Fono Forum

“This is a highly rewarding release, which clearly shows the progression of Richard Strauss the composer and which any self-respecting Straussian will relish. Strauss is clearly evident in patches of this music, especially in the piano writing of the Piano Quartet, and the Münchner Klaviertrio bring this out expertly.” MusicWeb International

Robert Schumann: Piano Trio and Piano Quartet

“The musicians manage the (by now) rare feat of realizing this music unobtrusively and yet subtly down to the smallest ramifications. (…) very soothing.” Fono Forum

“(…) wonderful (…)” Kirchenzeitung Aachen

“Vocals moving to tears (…) always worth listening to.” Das Orchester

“This is a wonderful performance, vibrant, expressive, attentive to the letter and the spirit of the score—absolutely one of the best I’ve heard. (…) the currently release is very strongly recommended.” Fanfare

Antonín Dvořák: Piano Trios

“Dvorak’s ever welcome Dumky Trio was given an exhilarating and affectionate performance by this very musical trio.” Musical Opinion (London)

Astor Piazzolla: Tangos y Canciones

“Elegance and ease, musical perfection and a certain touch of tango mania, not to be captured in words, distinguish this disc.” Neue Musikzeitung

Johannes Brahms: Piano Trios in B Major and C Major

“The trio’s repeatedly praised precision is audible: the razor-sharpness of every dynamic gradation and the melding of voices in lyrical passages create a truly ‘romantic’ Brahms.” Ensemble

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Piano Trios in D Minor and C Minor

“The performers allow the two string instruments and the grand piano to melt into a homogeneous whole – and savor the vocal arcs of the works with relish. … a soulful interpretation of this glorious romantic chamber music.” CD tip on NDR Culture

“Mendelssohn’s trios become simply enchanting music under the hands of this ensemble, captivating the listener from the very beginning.” Leipziger Stadtmagazin

Joseph Haydn: Scottish & Welsh Songs with James Taylor

“A real pleasure, from the first to the last note.” Rondo Magazin

“The Munich Trio handles the classical style with great ease and freshness.” Crescendo, France

Ned Rorem: Songs and Cycles

“The CD is very good, very, and I’m thrilled and honored by it.” Ned Rorem

“This is musically a very important record, and it is long overdue.” International Record Review

Alberto Ginastera: Música da cámara y Canciones

“An excellent, important and rich sample of the Ginastera’s art in the field of chamber music.” CD Compact, “Premios XIX“, Spain

George Enescu: Cello Sonatas Nos. 1 & 2

“This must be one of the most perfectly voiced piano recordings ever made, making for a genuine partnership in response to the music. … Gloriously uplifting music-making all round!” Music Web International