The Abegg Trio is known for its commitment to historically informed performance, using copies of fortepianos by Anton Walter and gut-strung instruments for Mozart, Haydn, and Beethoven, and period grand pianos by Baptist Streicher for Brahms.
Composer Biography
Dmitri Shostakovich's Trio Op. 8 is deeply connected to his personal life, as he met the dedicatee, Tanja Gliwenko, while recovering from tuberculosis at a sanatorium.
Composition History
Shostakovich's Piano Trio Op. 67 was written as an epitaph for his closest friend, Iwan Sollertinski, a musicologist and artistic director of the Leningrad Philharmonic, who died unexpectedly in 1944.
Composer Biography
Before becoming a renowned composer, Dmitri Shostakovich worked as an improvising pianist for silent films to earn money, a job he felt hindered his creativity.
Performer Biography
The Abegg Trio, consisting of Ulrich Beetz (violin), Birgit Erichson (cello), and Gerrit Zitterbart (piano), has been performing with the same lineup since 1976.
Composition History
Shostakovich's Trio Op. 8 was completed in autumn 1923, six months after his meeting with Tanja Gliwenko, to whom it is dedicated.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Iwan Sollertinski, a close friend and intellectual partner of Shostakovich, famously described Shostakovich's style as "genuine Dostoievsky as retold by Charlie Chaplin."
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