February 15, 2001
“
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 Germanys 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
Fontenays 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 ensembles 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
Carnegies 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 groups 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 Beethovens Piano Trios won the 1994 German
Record Critics Award.
Trio Fontenays 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.
— end —