Trio 258

Trio 258 The members of Trio 258 are pianist Lestari Scholtes, violinist Eduardo Paredes Crespo and cellist Leonard Besseling, three inspirational musicians sharing a rich background in chamber music both at home and abroad. The piano trio came together in 2015 in an atmospheric rehearsal room at Keizersgracht 258 in Amsterdam. At the very same address, a few floors lower down, Lenoard’s cello had also been built by Leonard’s father, luthier Mathieu Besseling. The trio has performed at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Muziekgebouw Eindhoven, TivoliVredenburg Utrecht, Opéra National de Bordeaux and at festivals such as the Storioni Festival and the Dutch Grachtenfestival. They have made several appearances on national television, in programmes such as Podium Witteman and Podium Klassiek, as well as playing regularly on NPO Radio4. Trio 258 continues to take lessons regularly from teachers such as Joan Berkhemer, Dmitri Ferschtman and Slava Poprugin.
Inspired by their shared passion for chamber music, the members of Trio 258 are on a continuing quest to forge the most powerful connections with the music and their audiences, a quest that does not shy away from a deeply personal involvement as they explore their love for the repertoire at the limits of intimacy and vulnerability. The trio looks for its own unique sound, inspired by a more romantic ideal from yesteryear, a sound that is always a product of whatever the music itself demands. Trio 258 focuses in particular on the Romantic period (1810-1915). By contrast with the Baroque and Classical periods, authentic performance practices are less commonly deployed in music of this period. The fact is that we can still access sound recordings from this period, from which it is possible to infer, to a certain extent at least, how people played at the time. Trio 258 draws inspiration from these surviving recordings: perception, a unique voice and a search for freedom in the music with as few restrictions as possible. Also, both Eduardo and Leonard play on gut strings, as did their predecessors in the Romantic era: strings that can slip out of tune more readily, posing a greater performance challenge, but yet provide a much wider range of possibilities when it comes to tonal colouration and articulation. The trio’s repertoire covers the spectrum from Haydn to Fazil Say, albeit with a special preference for the Romantic piano Trio corpus. The Return is the debut CD from Trio 258.