Donald E. Osborne,  Director California Artists Management 564 Market Street, Suite 420, San Francisco, CA  94104-5412 415 362-2787 / fax: 415 362-2838 / Skype: calartistsdon  / Email

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Altenberg Trio   Claus-Christian Schuster, piano Amiram Ganz, violin Alexander Gebert, cello

Since its “official” debut during the Salzburg Mozart Week in January 1994, the Altenberg Trio of Vienna – one of the few full-time piano trios in the world of chamber music – has, in over 1000 performances, earned a reputation as one of the most daring and consistent ensembles of its kind.

The Altenberg Trio enjoys a splendid reputation among international chamber music ensembles. The ensemble has been enthusiastically received in the United States, Canada and the European countries of Denmark, France, Switzerland, Holland, the Czech Republic (Prague Spring Festival) and Italy, as well as their native Austria. Repertoire encompasses no fewer than 200 piano trios, among them works which were composed for and premiered by the Altenberg Trio.

At the time it was formed, the ensemble became Trio-in-residence of Vienna´s Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, the renowned Musikverein, where it gives an annual series of concerts in the Brahms Saal. They are also Trio-in-residence of the Vienna Conservatory, where the trio gives master classes and seminars for chamber music majors.

In addition, the Altenberg Trio performs regularly at the International Brahms Festival at Muerzzuschlag in Austria, where Claus-Christian Schuster is artistic Director and the Accademia di Musica di Pinerolo (Piedmont), where the trio offers monthly masterclasses for young ensembles.

The players - Claus Christian Schuster, Martin Hornstein and Amiram Ganz - have impressive individual reputations in chamber music reputations, taking great pride in remaining faithful to the style and tradition of the "Viennese sound" so often admired in reviews. They chose their name in honor of the revered Viennese poet Peter Altenberg, who was a contemporary and compatriot of several renowned Viennese composers and artists at the turn of the century: Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, Gustav Mahler, Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka and Gustav Klimt.

The Altenberg Trio currently has 10 recordings on the Challenge label in repertoire ranging from German and French classics to American music. In 1999, following the release of their recording of the complete Schumann piano trios, the Trio received the Robert Schumann Award of the City of Zwickau. Their recording of trios of Ives, Copland and Bernstein won the Edison Award in Amsterdam in 2000.

The Altenberg Trio’s last cycles were particularly highly acclaimed, including ten concerts of the series “Strolling through the Rediscovered Europe,” which explored the music of the European Union’s ten new member states. The Musikverein cycle of 2006/07 season under the title “A Russian Winter’s Journey” was dedicated in its entirety to Dmitri Shostakovich and his circle.

“The Genius and His Shadow” is the title the Altenberg Trio gave to its 2007/08 concert series, performed in Vienna’s Musikverein. It centers on Ludwig van Beethoven’s oeuvre. The works of five composers overshadowed by Beethoven are treated comparatively, shedding light on his genius and influence.   In April 2007 the ensemble premiered the piano trio Friedrich Cerha, dedicated to them.

Amiram Ganz plays a violin by Goffredo Cappa (Saluzzo 1686), Alexander Gebert, a cello by Nicolas Vuillaume (1800-1871).

Pianist Claus-Christian Schuster was born in Vienna in 1952. He studied in Vienna, at Indiana University in Bloomington, and at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, working with his father, with Wilhelm Huebner, Hans Graf, Dieter Weber and Vera Gornostayeva. His encounter with Wilhelm Kempff in Positano, Italy, left an indelible impression upon him. He won awards at several international piano and chamber music competitions, performing as a soloist until 1984 when he founded the Vienna Schubert Trio, a regular guest at the most important music centers and renowned chamber music festivals (Musikverein/Vienna – with their own cycle since 1988; Salzburg Festival, Teatro alla Scala/Milan, La Fenice/Venice; Concertgebouw Amsterdam, etc.). After the Vienna Schubert Trio disbanded in 1993, he founded the Altenberg Trio Wien with his colleagues Amiram Ganz and Martin Hornstein, thus continuing and even intensifying his international chamber music activities.

Between 1976 and 1986 Claus-Christian Schuster taught at the Vienna Musikhochschule. In addition to performing widely, the Altenberg Trio gives a series of seminars for chamber music majors at the Vienna Conservatory as well as master classes in Europe and the U.S.

Violinist Amiram Ganz was born in Montevideo in 1952. He began studying violin in Uruguay with Israel Chorberg, the Leopold Auer-pupil Ilya Fidlon, and Jorge Risi. At the age of eleven he won the Jeunesses Musicales Competition and then continued his studies with Richard Burgin in the U.S.A. and Alberto Lysy at the International Academy of Chamber Music in Rome. Studying on a scholarship at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory between 1974 and 1979 he met Victor Pikaisen, who became his teacher. As a finalist and award winner of several international competitions (Long-Thibaud/Paris, ARD/Munich, etc.), he became first concertmaster of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg in 1980. From 1987 until the foundation of the Altenberg Trio he was the violinist of the Shostakovitch Trio, appearing at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Tchaikovsky Conservatory Moscow, etc. In 1994 he became a founding member of the Altenberg Trio of Vienna.

Amiram Ganz has been teaching at the Strasbourg Conservatory since 1981. As a member of the Altenberg Trio he is now leads a series of seminars for music majors at the Vienna Conservatory.

Cellist Alexander Gebert was born in 1977 to a musical family in Warsaw. When he was three years old they moved to Finland, where he studied cello with Timo Hanhinen at the Turku Conservatory. Later he became a student at the Sibelius Academy in the classes of Victoria Yaglig, Kazimierz Michalik und Heikki Rautasalo. From 1995-1998 he received a Polish state scholarship to study at the Chopin Academy in Warsaw. After his graduation he continued his studies with Philippe Muller at the Paris Conservatory and on a DAAD scholarship with Natalia Gutman in Stuttgart. In 2002 he was granted a three-year scholarship from the Groupe Banques Populaires in Paris.

Alexander Gebert won his first international contest at the age of 16. In 1997 he came in second at the Lutoslawski Competition in Warsaw, and in 2000 won Third Prize at the Antonio Janigro Contest in Zagreb, Second Prize and Audience Prize at the International Geneva Cello Competition (where he played with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Heinrich Schiff conducting), and First Prize at the Valentino Bucchi Contest of Rome.

He performs widely both as a soloist and chamber musician at many prestigious venues (Kuhmo Festival, Oleg-Kagan-Musikfest, Festival de Deauville, Ravinia Festival). In 2004 he was invited to join the Altenberg Trio Vienna.

Press excerpts:

Altenberg Trio at Dumbarton Oaks: Studied Restraint to Stirring Intensity

Full-time piano trios are something of a rarity, so it’s been a treat to have a stream of them rolling through town. First came the hip, adventurous Amelia Piano trio followed by the venerable Beaux Arts Trio. And on Sunday the Vienna-based Altenberg Trio, a fine ensemble with a rising reputation, arrived at the newly renovated music room at Dumbarton Oaks.

No one will mistake the Altenbergs for wild-eyed revolutionaries; decked out in white tie and tails, they stuck largely to the middle, playing with formality and restrained correctness. Things got off to a start with Beethoven’s Variations on “Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu.” Built on a vacuous aria by Wenzel Mueller (the tile translates to “I am the Tailor Cockatoo”), it flirts constantly with insipidity and needs a committed performance to keep it honest.

There was more to sink your brain cells into when the trio returned for Robert Schumann’s fascinating Trio No., 3 in G minor, Op, 110. It’s a remarkable work, written in 1851 when Schumann was in decline with mental illness. But there’s nothing deranged about the piece. It may sound as if Schumann is slowly tearing open his heart, but he does it with logic and seething power. Ganz turned in an often vivid account.

The ensemble locked onto target in Dmitri Shostakovich’s masterly Piano Trio No. 2 in E minor, Op. 67, which may be one of the most compelling trios in the repertoire. Written in memory of a friend, Ivan Sollertinsky, who died suddenly in 1944, it is an anguished and shockingly intense work, and the trio played it with insightful, precisely controlled fury. From the plaintive opening to the unbearably delicate close  - which left the audience in silence for several long moments – the Altenbergs showed that they could be nothing shoft of stunning.

Washington Post – April 16, 2008

The Altenberg Trio Plays Mozart

By Christian Herzog

Unless you’re a German Lit major or an aficionado of the songs of Alban Berg, you are likely to be unfamiliar with the name of Peter Altenberg. Hell, most Americans probably don’t know who Rilke or Heine or Goethe were; what hope does a minor poet like Altenberg have for modern recognition in San Diego? (He’s obscure enough that he doesn’t even have an entry in the Encyclopedia Britannica).

Regardless, a classy piano trio from Vienna has adopted Altenberg as their namesake, and San Diego had the opportunity to hear them perform an all-Mozart program this past weekend. Just as one doesn’t associate chamber music group names with poets (chamber ensembles usually choose composer or musician or mythological names), one doesn’t associate piano trios with Mozart. For the past two years, Mainly Mozart has used its Spotlight Series to feature the works of one composer per concert. Last weekend was Mozart’s turn to display his chamber music prowess.

If I were program director and wanted to give an audience the most effective and affective dose of Mozart, I would have chosen the Clarinet Quintet, one or both of the piano quartets, the D minor String Quartet, or his best piano works. Mozart piano trios? I wouldn’t even consider them. Why, the piano trio is the province of Haydn, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, Ravel, Faure, and the list goes on and on. Mozart is rarely invited to the Piano Trio Party.

There’s a reason for this. Out of the three works on Friday’s concert  at the Neurosciences Institute, only the second half offering – the B-flat Piano Trio, K. 502 – could stand on its own next to such distinguished company. The two works preceding K. 502 on the first half – the Divertimento in B-flat, K. 254 and the Piano Trio in G, K. 564 – are Mozartian trinkets. Because they’re by the mature Mozart, they are brilliant, shiny, and twinkling, but it’s clear that these baubles are rhinestones instead of diamonds.

Yet who cared when these jewels were displayed in such a masterly fashion by the gentlemen in the Altenberg Trio? The Trio’s beauty of tone, elegant articulations, generous phrasing, and thoughtful conception of each movement’s form could not help but win over newcomers and jaded concertgoers alike. In Mozart’s ear, the piano trio as a genre began to move away from a beefed-up accompanied piano sonata, yet the melodic focus is still primarily on the piano. Claus-Christian Schuster tackled the keyboard part with aplomb, throwing off roulades, scales and arpeggios with a limpid, singing tone, as if each individual note in the line were a gleaming pearl on a necklace. His tempos were appropriately chosen and kept the momentum up, yet there was room within for rhythmic give-and-take.

Violinist Amiram Ganz played munificently, a warm sound with a tight vibrato that sang out when needed. Cellist Alexander Gebert brought a similar warmth to his instrument. Throughout the evening, intonation was flawless, as was the coordination between all three musicians. This was world-class playing hat whetted one’s appetite to hear the Altenberg Trio tackle some more profound repertory. These gentlemen have over 200 works in their repertory, and a number of those were recently composed. Someone please bring them back to San Diego and turn them loose on a program without any Mozart.

San Diego Union – April 8, 2008

Altenberg Trio performing for the Birmingham Chamber Music Society: 5 stars

“Played with tremendous verve. The Altenberg Trio showed an instinctive and total understanding of what must have been completely foreign musical territory. These superb Austrian musicians gave a stunning performance of this glorious work.”

Birmingham Post - March 27, 2007

Music Club Ends Season on a High

by Tony Cooper

The Norfolk and Norwich Music Club ended its season on a high note with a thoroughly entertaining concert with a trio of works performed by an outstanding trio who made its debut only a decade ago at the Salzburg Mozart Week.

Their playing was exceptional and they acknowledged Haydn’s visit to England by opening the concert with a work published here in 1795. They ended it with a marvelous performance of Schubert’s first piano trio in B flat major, in which a packed house delighted.

The rapport between the piano and strings was perfectly balanced with the pianist, Claus-Christian Schuster, very alert and attentive.

He kept a close ear to his colleagues (Amiram Ganz, violin, and Alexander Gebert, cello) constantly leaning away from the keyboard towards them listening to every note they played.

And anyone thinking that contemporary music is not for them, the central work would, I think, change their minds.

It came from Douglas Weiland, a composer now based in Norfolk and presently composer-in-residence of the club. His seond piano trio (in three movements) was lyrical, romantic and, above all, accessible – even, I imagine, to the most sensitive ears!

The composer (who was present at the performance) subtitled the work Pavey Ark, which is an imposing cliff in the Langdale area of te Lake District. It influenced him greatly during its composition.

I sensed a mild tribute to Shostakovich in the opening movement with bars of repeated crochets keeping up an even and compelling rhythm. It sounded very effected and complemented the writing for the other two parts in a tranquil and mesmeric way. And the ending was a glorious rush of sound!

I also imagined the landscape of this well-loved area. I was lost in thought, I heard the rush of water and found myself totally absorbed in this wonderful piece of new writing.

Eastern Daily Press – November 4, 2005

Saint-Saëns Piano Trios, Challenge Records:

“The Altenberg Trio plays all of this delightful music expertly in these recordings made June 2002 in Muziekcentrum, Den Bosch. Recording engineer Bert van der Wolf has provided a very close-up aural picture with a fine blend of the three instruments, all in front with mild separation, the piano in the center, violin and cello on right and left.”

R.E.B., SA-CD.net - February 2005