Berlin piano trio debuts in Naples

ATOS Trio serves Grand Piano Series a three-course menu of delights

There’s a long, delightful story behind ATOS Trio’s name.

Long story short, it’s the first letters of violinist Annette von Hehn, pianist Thomas Hoppe and cellist Stefan Heinemeyer’s given names.

The Berlin-based ensemble, who hit it off from their very first sight reading together in 2003, not only appears to get along especially well but also is well established as one of the world’s premier piano trios.

“We decided right then, 23 years ago, that we wanted to be a trio,” said Hoppe. “It was almost like saying, ‘Yes, I love you, and we will marry!’

“You know each other musically very well, and I know these people I travel with so well that I could order off a menu for both of them. The mutual respect, the mutual love for each other’s playing, has never vanished.”

And yet, their private lives are so different that they never really hang out together outside of rehearsals, travel and performance.

“And we made a rule very early in our trio life that we would play as much as possible in other formations, in order to stay fresh and not become stale inside the trio, and that we would only perform piano trios with each other.”

“A challenge of piano trio,” Hoppe added, “is having two string instruments and one percussion, the piano — two different sound entities. The pianist has to pay particular attention to playing a real, singing legato, as string players can, and the string players have to articulate as a pianist can.  And I, the pianist, must play orchestral and full, instead of loud, to mix my sound with the strings.”

Displaying distinguished interpretations, unbridled enthusiasm and an armload of prestigious laurels, this appealingly genuine trio continues to delight audiences at concerts around the world with the perfect synchrony of what the Detroit Free Press called “three voices with one sound.”

Their Naples debut brings not only a trio of trios, but also a three-course international menu: Haydn’s Hungarian-spiced appetizer, Trio in G Major (nicknamed “Rondo all’Ongarese” for its then-modish gypsy finale); the fiery Spanish Trio in C Major by Gaspar Cassadò; and Schubert’s Viennese Tafelspitz main course, the symphony-length Trio in B-flat Major.

Haydn’s well-known Classical trio will lull the audience with the tranquil dignity of its first two movements, before the third erupts, with a bang, in a breakneck three-way race too fast even for gypsies to dance to.

The Cassadò Trio in C Major is a lesser-known, but delicious, 20^th-century piece packed with spicy Spanish flavors garnished with characteristic three-note ornaments. Composed in the same year (1926) when movies first began to have symphonic soundtracks, the trio’s lush cinematic splendor is rendered with all the depth of a chamber orchestra by the ATOS Trio.

“The piano trio repertoire is filled with great masterworks,” Hoppe reflected. “But there are also a number of compositions, like Cassadò’s, that are simply overlooked. We’ve gone on a treasure hunt over the years to include them regularly in our programs.”

By turns sprightly and soulful, Schubert’s Trio in B-flat Major concludes the evening, as fellow composer Robert Schumann said, by making “the troubles of our human existence disappear and all the world … fresh and bright again.”

The ATOS Trio has performed in many of the world´s most prestigious venues, including London’s Wigmore Hall, Carnegie Hall, the Berlin Philharmonic, Teatro Colon Buenos Aires and the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, with a repertoire that includes all the masterworks written for piano trio as well as lesser-known gems.

The trio has recorded extensively, yet thoughtfully. Besides well-known works by Mendelssohn, Brahms, Schumann and Beethoven, lesser-known works by Heinrich von Herzogenberg have been hailed as “a treasure” by Germany´s Der Spiegel online, as were international adventures like “The French Album” (Debussy, Chaminade, Françaix, Boulanger), “The Russian Album” (Arensky, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich), “The Czech Album” (Suk, Smetana, Dvořák) and “The Vienna Album” (Korngold, Krenek, Kreisler).

In Berlin and elsewhere, the three make a point of playing school concerts for underprivileged kids who’ve had no exposure to classical music.

“Our first one was a great experience,” Hoppe remembered. “We sang with them, we played for them, we explained composers and instruments to them. The kids painted pictures of the instruments. They tried out an old cello that Stefan brought with him, and the piano. How to describe the glow in the eyes of Fatima, 11, when I told her that she managed to get the quietest sound out of the piano, of all the kids?”

While in Naples, the ATOS Trio looks forward to visiting local schools through Grand Piano Series’ community outreach.

ATOS Trio

When: 7 p.m., Thursday, Apr. 30
Where: Daniels Pavilion, Artis—Naples, 5833 Pelican Bay Boulevard, Naples.
Purchase tickets: ($65) at grandpianoseries.org or artisnaples.org.

Call Artis—Naples at 239-597-1900 for assistance.