“… a remarkable

unanimity of sound and purpose”

—-The New York Times

Vibrant German trio to visit

Middlebury College March 2

MIDDLEBURY, Vt.―Concert goers

will enjoy an energetic evening of trios by Beethoven, Leonard

Bernstein, and Felix Mendelssohn when Germany’s acclaimed Trio

Fontenay visits Middlebury College Friday, March 2, at 8 p.m. in the

Concert Hall in the Center for the Arts on South Main Street (Route

30).

Pianist Wolf Harden, violinist

Michael Mücke, and cellist Jens Peter Maintz routinely play

across Europe, North and South America, Asia, and Australia to lavish

reviews. Their concert performances draw praise for technical skill,

collaborative precision, power, and discipline.

The Daily Record in Wooster, Ohio,

was direct in its review last spring: “It was high wire, take it to

the edge playing.” On the same tour, the ensemble made a similar

impression on the Edmonton Journal, which referred to “plenty of

moments of rapture and fire.” The Houston Chronicle called

Fontenay’s performance “just magical.” A critic at the Albany

Times-Union agreed: “These three musicians brought Tchaikovsky up to

full-throttle burn. The audience loved the razzle-dazzle.”

While Trio Fontenay often receives

praise for its coherence and energy, it also is credited for an

exemplary level of respect for its material. A “selfless reverence

for the music” is how the Kansas City Star described it after a 1998

concert of “music-making on an almost superhuman level.”

Formed in 1980, the trio named itself

after the street near the Hamburg Conservatory where the group first

met to practice. The word fontenay is old French for source

and fantasy. The ensemble’s early days were spent in study with

the Amadeus Quartet and the trio soon began winning awards and

competitions across Europe. The group has been named

trio-in-residence at Paris’ Théâtre Chatelet and

makes regular appearances in London, Munich, Hamburg, Berlin, and

Amsterdam. North American tours have brought the ensemble to

Montreal, Toronto, Kansas City, Houston, Chicago, Berkeley, and

Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, among other locales.

In addition to concert dates, Trio

Fontenay has an extensive list of recordings on a number of labels.

The group’s members have recorded the complete piano trios by

Brahms, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Schubert, and Dvorák. They

recently signed a five-year exclusive contract with Teldec. Their

Teldec recording of Beethoven’s Piano Trios won the 1994 German

Record Critics Award.

Trio Fontenay’s performance is

sponsored by the Middlebury College Concert Series. Tickets are $10

for general admission and $8 for senior citizens. A pre-performance

dinner will be held at 6:30 p.m. at Rehearsals Cafe in the Center for

the Arts. For tickets or dinner reservations, call the College box

office at 802-443-6433.

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