GAEDE STRING TRIO with
SUSANNE GRUTZMANN (piano)

Stefano Mollo (violin)
Thomas Selditz (viola)
Andreas Greger (cello)

Friday 14 October, 2005 / 8:30pm
PASYDY Auditorium, Nicosia

Programme:
Robert Schumann (1810-1856) / Piano Quartet Op.47

Jean Francaix (1912-1997) / String Trio

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) / Piano Quartet in A major Op.26

The Gaede Trio founded in 1991 now ranks as one of the leading ensembles of its kind. The Gaede Trio performed at all major centres of music at home and abroad, such as the Kissinger Summer Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein and Rheingau Music Festivals, the Wurzburger Mozart Festival and the Klangbogen Festival in Vienna. They also played at the Konzerthaus and the Staatsoper in Berlin, the Meistersingerhalle in Nuremburg, the Musikverein Vienna, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris as well as at many other music venues. Different concert tours took the ensemble to Switzerland, France, Spain, Belgium, Japan, the USA and the Far East.

Since many years, the Gaede Trio have been accompanied by the pianists Phillip Moll and Markus Schirmer, the flautists Wolfgang Schulz (Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra), Sharon Bezaly and Andrea Lieberknecht, as well as by the actor Wolfram Berger.

As artists they do not wish to restrict themselves merely to one particular field of music. “We want to explore all stylistic routes and perform an extremely varied programme from Bach to Schnittke,” so Thomas Selditz describing the trio's concept. The trio has commissioned new works from composers such as Georg Katzer, Alain Fourchotte and Siegfried Matthus.

Numerous CD recordings with Sony, Largo Records and, in particular, with Tacet bear witness to the extensive repertoire of the Gaede Trio. Many of the CDs have received critical acclaim from the music press and commendations such as ‘Audiophile CD of the Month’ (Stereoplay), ‘Star of the Month’ (Fonoforum), ‘Recommendation of the Month’ (Klassik Heute) and the ‘Diapason d'or’ in France.

In addition, a highlight of the Gaede Trio’s work is their extensive collaboration with radio and TV broadcasting corporations. Concerts and productions have been broadcast by the ARD, SWR, BR, WDR, NDR, ORF, DW, DeutschlandRadio, Deutschlandfunk and NHK-Japan.


Susanne Grutzmann (piano)

Susanne Grutzmann, born in Leipzig, is one of Germany's leading pianists. After her performance of Beethoven's Fifth Piano Concerto at the Musikhalle Hamburg, the influential German newspaper DIE WELT wrote: "By international standards, she is among the most distinguished and brilliant exponents in her field."

Grutzmann studied the piano under Dieter Zechlin in Berlin. At the age of 17, she had already become a successful international concert pianist with performances in Prague, Vienna, Moscow, Berlin, Bratislava and Budapest. The world of professional classical music then took notice of the young pianist who had won a number of international piano competitions such as the J.-S.-Bach-Competition in Leipzig, the Robert-Schumann-Competition in Zwickau and the Concurso Vianna da Motta in Lisbon. The young virtuoso's extraordinary achievement was finally confirmed at the ARD-Competition in Munich. The jury was so impressed with the depth of her creative imagination and with her outstanding technical ability that she was unhesitatingly awarded the first prize - an accolade rarely given at this important international piano competition.

Grutzmann has maintained her secure position on the German and the international concert scene ever since. She performed under eminent conductors such as Kurt Masur, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Sylvain Cambreling, Hartmut Haenchen and Hans Zender. She played as a soloist with a large number of renowned symphony orchestras, such as the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin, the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, the Symphony Orchestra of the Sudwestfunk Baden-Baden, the Bavarian State Orchestra Munich, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Frankfurt Museum Orchestra, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Netherlands Philharmonic as well as the Slovakian Philharmonic.

The musician Susanne Grutzmann is exceptionally versatile. Her repertoire includes nearly the whole range of piano literature, with the main emphasis of her concert programs on the works of Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin and Robert Schumann. The discovery of Clara Schumann's oeuvre, however, has taken on a special meaning for the pianist. Grutzmann considers presenting and reviving Clara Schumann's complete, hitherto unaccountably neglected piano compositions a singularly rewarding task. Thus she recorded Clara Schumann's work at APERTO. Another CD with the Preludes by Chopin and the Symphonic Etudes op. 13 by Schumann has been released by TELDEC.

Susanne Grutzmann is professor at the Music Academy in Koln.