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Oberon Celebrates Shakespeare

Oberon Trio

Oberon Celebrates Shakespeare

Format: CD
Label: CAvi
UPC: 4260085533671
Catnr: AVI 8553367
Release date: 25 November 2016
1 CD
 
Label
CAvi
UPC
4260085533671
Catalogue number
AVI 8553367
Release date
25 November 2016
Album
Artist(s)
Composer(s)
EN

About the album

Ten years ago, in 2006, three musicians got together to play Mendelssohn. The trio eventually started looking for an appropriate name, and they eventually found their 'patron' in Oberon, one of the characters in Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream. The King of the Elves embodies the pleasure anyone can find in metamorphosis, in games and creativity, and that remains this musical trio's creed until today - the will to remain flexible at all times, avoiding any sort of routine in music-making and programming. 'We 'compose' our programmes with great care', affirms cellist Antoaneta Emanuilova. The year 2016 also marked the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's death: the trio thus decided to combine both jubilees in one programme. Since contemporary music is also part of the three musicians' repertoire, they commissioned a new work. 'We wanted it to be up-to-date, but something that would nevertheless have a connection with our namesake', explains violinist Henja Semmler. They suggested this idea to British composer Charlotte Bray whom the trio's pianist Jonathan Aner met by chance at a concert in Berlin four years before, when she had just moved to the German capital. Now in her mid-thirties, she has written a great amount of chamber music, and her cello concerto has been featured at the BBC Proms. 'A magic spell must have been at work: just then, Charlotte was working on a trilogy of piano trios that were to be influenced by Shakespeare', the pianist recalls. Thus, after her first piano trio entitled Those Secret Eyes which had been inspired by Shakespeare's Macbeth, Bray decided to search for inspiration int eh dreamworld of Oberon for her next work in the same genre. The resulting piano trio fantasia That Crazed Smile evokes a moonlit night where fairies join forces to shower star-crossed lovers with dreams. Bray creates Impressionist and Surrealist spaces,alternating between pointillist and planar structures. An elaborate, free-tonal fabric seems to unravel before our eyes, illuminated with flashes of lightning. Expressively heightened moods contrast with passages that are playful, almost dance-like, thus making us utterly forget that Bray is actually applying rigorous composition technique.

Artist(s)

Oberon Trio

The Oberon Trio was founded in 2006. ANTOANETA EMANUILOVA Cello · HENJA SEMMLER Violin · JONATHAN ANER Piano Shortly after the ensemble‘s première concert, the Flensburger Tageblatt already credited the Oberon Trio with “enormous interpretive abilities, which testify to this new ensemble’s enchanting maturity and stylistic command.” Meanwhile, the trio has given performances at the Berliner Philharmonie, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, the Konzerthaus Dortmund, and Esterházy Palace, as well as in Italy, Bulgaria, Israel, India, Egypt, and the Ukraine. These three musicians are committed to offering performances of lesser-known compositions alongside established masterpieces. Their repertoire extends from piano trios by CPE Bach and Joseph Haydn – the pioneers of the medium – to those by Jörg Widmann and Charlotte Bray, whose...
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The Oberon Trio was founded in 2006.

ANTOANETA EMANUILOVA Cello · HENJA SEMMLER Violin · JONATHAN ANER Piano

Shortly after the ensemble‘s première concert, the Flensburger Tageblatt already credited the Oberon Trio with “enormous interpretive abilities, which testify to this new ensemble’s enchanting maturity and stylistic command.” Meanwhile, the trio has given performances at the Berliner Philharmonie, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, the Konzerthaus Dortmund, and Esterházy Palace, as well as in Italy, Bulgaria, Israel, India, Egypt, and the Ukraine.
These three musicians are committed to offering performances of lesser-known compositions alongside established masterpieces. Their repertoire extends from piano trios by CPE Bach and Joseph Haydn – the pioneers of the medium – to those by Jörg Widmann and Charlotte Bray, whose trios were recorded for the first time by the ensemble.

The trio also works together regularly with chamber music partners such as Tabea Zimmermann, Ian Bostridge, Christoph Prégardien, and Shirley Brill. A special passion for the Oberon Trio is to establish greater intimacy between performers and the audience. Through moderated concerts and by publishing their own program notes they provide listeners with insights into the processes and background of their interpretations.
The first album released by the Oberon Trio, entitled Passacaglia, was recommended by hr2, mdr figaro, and NDR Kultur. Their second CD appeared in 2016 under the title Oberon Celebrates Shakespeare.

The magazine Das Orchester commented: “Featured here is an ensemble that merits serious attention: [the three musicians] display captivating technical virtuosity, musical verve, and consummate chamber music coordination.”


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Composer(s)

Ludwig van Beethoven

Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential of all composers. His best-known compositions include nine symphonies, five piano concertos, one violin concerto, 32 piano sonatas, 16 string quartets, his great Mass the Missa solemnis, and one opera, Fidelio. Together with Mozart and Haydn, he was part of the First Viennese School.    Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of the Holy Roman Empire, Beethoven displayed his musical talents at an early age and was taught by his father Johann van Beethoven and by composer and conductor Christian Gottlob...
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Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential of all composers. His best-known compositions include nine symphonies, five piano concertos, one violin concerto, 32 piano sonatas, 16 string quartets, his great Mass the Missa solemnis, and one opera, Fidelio. Together with Mozart and Haydn, he was part of the First Viennese School. Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of the Holy Roman Empire, Beethoven displayed his musical talents at an early age and was taught by his father Johann van Beethoven and by composer and conductor Christian Gottlob Neefe. At the age of 21 he moved to Vienna, where he began studying composition with Joseph Haydn, and gained a reputation as a virtuoso pianist. He lived in Vienna until his death. By his late 20s his hearing began to deteriorate, and by the last decade of his life he was almost totally deaf. In 1811 he gave up conducting and performing in public but continued to compose; many of his most admired works come from these last 15 years of his life.

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Felix Mendelssohn

Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period. Mendelssohn is often compared to Mozart. Both of them were child prodigies, both had a talented sister and they both died at a young age. Mendelssohn, who as a child also painted wrote poetry, was born in small family which converted to christianity from judaism. As a composer he preferred looking back, rather than forward: his main examples were Bach, Handel and Mozart. It was Mendelssohn who retrieved Bach from oblivion and pushed for a revival of his music, which still lasts today. One century after its premier, Mendelsson performed the St Matthew Passion for the second...
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Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic period.

Mendelssohn is often compared to Mozart. Both of them were child prodigies, both had a talented sister and they both died at a young age. Mendelssohn, who as a child also painted wrote poetry, was born in small family which converted to christianity from judaism. As a composer he preferred looking back, rather than forward: his main examples were Bach, Handel and Mozart. It was Mendelssohn who retrieved Bach from oblivion and pushed for a revival of his music, which still lasts today. One century after its premier, Mendelsson performed the St Matthew Passion for the second time ever, in 1829.

Three years, earlier, on his 17th, he had already composed his masterfully overture A midsummer night's dream op. 21, based on Shakespeare's play. Today, it is still considered as one of the absolute masterpieces in all of the orchestra reperoire. His Violin Concerto op. 64 belongs to the most beautiful works of the 19th century as well. During his travels through Europe, he wrote his brilliant Italian Symphony, Scottish Symphony and the overture The Hebrides.

Although Mendelssohn had a prosperous career, his weak physique made him emotionally vulnerable. The death of his favourite sister Fanny became fatal: Mendelssohn died in the same year, at the age of 38.


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