Harald Kosik piano
Verena Stourzh violin
Hannes Gradwohl cello
platzhalter-zeilenabstand

“There is no current piano trio formation who is so intensively committed to Joseph Haydn’s work as the Haydn Trio Eisenstadt, founded in 1992.”
(Fono Forum, 2006)

The Haydn Trio Eisenstadt is one of Austria’s leading chamber music ensembles. A full concert schedule together with a large number of CD recordings are proof of the trio’s outstanding reputation. In addition to intensive work on their namesake’s oeuvre the trio also has many other projects in hand.

In the Haydn-year 2009 (www.haydn2009.at) the Haydn Trio Eisenstadt is focussing on the bicentenary of Haydn’s death. On the occasion of the bicentenary of Joseph Haydn’s death in 2009 the Haydn Festival Eisenstadt together with the Haydn Trio Eisenstadt initiated the worldwide composition project “D2H - DedicatedToHaydn” (www.d2h.at) under the project management of Harald Kosik.

Taking as its motto Joseph Haydn’s famous saying “The whole world understands my language”, 6 Austrian composers, 6 composers from other European countries and 6 composers from all other continents composed a piano trio “DedicatedToHaydn” for the bicentenary. The Haydn Trio Eisenstadt presents these 18 works throughout 2009 as part of their contemporary music programme, ton.art.project (www.tonartproject.at).
Further information about this outstanding project can be found under www.d2h.at.

As musical ambassadors of the home region of Joseph Haydn the trio is touring around the globe in 2009, performing those 18 contemporary works DedicatedToHaydn combined with - of course - music by Joseph Haydn.Concerts take them to Amsterdam (Concertgebouw), Paris (Louvre), London (Kings Place), Edinburgh, Basel, Milan, Prague, Passau, Potsdam (Musikfestspiele Sanssouci), Moskow, New York and Washington, as well as South America, Australia, South Africa, Japan, Taiwan, Korea and China.

Biography

In 1994, the renowned Accademia Chigiana in Siena bestowed on the Haydn Trio Eisenstadt the Honorary Diploma for the “best piano trio” and an award for the “best foreign contribution” of the entire festival. This distinction led to their being admitted to the Scuola Internazionale di Musica da Camera del Trio di Trieste, which the ensemble attended for two years.

In 2005 the Ensemble received the advancement award for performing arts awarded by the Theodor Kery Foundation.

For the complete recording of Mozart’s Piano Trios (2006), the Haydn Trio Eisenstadt has received the prize “Wiener Flötenuhr 2007”, awarded by the Vienna Mozart Community (Wiener Mozartgemeinde).

In 2002 the Ensemble created ton.art.project to give them the opportunity of exploring and performing newly composed music at its best.

ton.art.project is a project group combining different forms of music and art with the aim of supporting contemporary music by presenting it in close collaboration with the composers.

Many composers appreciate the Haydn Trio Eisenstadt’s high standard of studying and interpreting their works. www.tonartproject.at

On the occasion of the 80th birthday of Austrian Writer Ingeborg Bachmann (1926-1973) in 2006 the Ensemble initiated the project BACHMANN to music „Schreiben gegen den Krieg / writing against war”, consisting of the Austrian premieres of five newly commissioned works. The European Premiere of these Compositions took place at the Wiener Musikverein, accompanied and complemented by the exhibition “writing against war. Ingeborg Bachmann 1926-1973” which was shown from May 16th to June 10th at Palais Palffy in Vienna.

Also in 2002 the Scottish Songs Project was initiated. Since then the Haydn Trio Eisenstadt cooperates with the highly esteemed Scottish singers Lorna Anderson (soprano) and Jamie MacDougall (tenor) in the first ever presentation of all 429 folksong arrangements (scottish and welsh songs) composed by Haydn, both in live concerts and on CDs.

This project has attracted the attention of the international music scene and receives excellent reviews both in Austria and abroad, for the quality and musicological relevance of the CD-production as well as outstanding live-performances. The complete CD edition of Haydn’s folksong arrangements comprises a total of 18 CDs.

www.scottishsongs.at

Numerous additional recordings have been released (Capriccio, Phoenix), such as the complete recordings of piano trios by Haydn, Schubert, Mozart and Beethoven, as well as a variety of recordings of contemporary music.