Dénes Várjon, Miklós Perényi, András Keller Presented by Liszt Academy

Three leading figures of Hungarian chamber music, Dénes Várjon, Miklós Perényi and András Keller, are joining forces for a performance of piano trios. It may not be an overstatement to claim that the tonal aesthetic of the piano trio is as close to perfection as you could get in chamber music: it is not by chance that such works are an important part of Haydn’s, Beethoven’s and Dvořák’s oeuvre. The Piano Trio in G major is without doubt one of Haydn’s most famous chamber works, and it is especially close to Hungarian audiences’ hearts as the composer used melodies of old Hungarian recruitment songs in the third movement.  The violin, cello and piano parts in Beethoven’s trios blend together to create a single, expressive unity, while at the same time presenting a lively reward for all three instrumentalists. It is Beethoven who, in contrast to Haydn, say, first endowed every line with soloistic qualities. The commonly known name (“Ghost”) of the Piano Trio in D major comes from the eery mood of the second movement. The first and third movements, however, have a completely different air about them: their playful rhythm and unusual key changes are full of sparkling wit. At the time Dvořák composed his dramatic and impulsive Piano Trio in F minor he had largely put aside the Slav national tone that until then had been his hallmark, instead searching for new ways, primarily by turning towards the style of his contemporary, Brahms.