 Ten years ago, in 2006, three musicians got togethe r to play Mendelssohn. The trio eventually started looking for an appropriate name, and they eventually found thei r “patron” in Oberon, one of the characters in Shak espeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream . The King of the Elves embodies the pleasure anyon e can find in metamorphosis, in games and creativity, and that re mains this musical trio’s creed until today – the w ill to remain flexible at all times, avoiding any sort of routine in music-making and programming. “We ‘compose’ our programmes with great care”, affirms cellist Antoan eta Emanuilova. The year 2016 also marked the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death: the trio thus decided to combine both jubilees in one programme. Since conte mporary music is also part of the three musicians’ repertoire, they commissioned a new work. “We wante d it to be up-to-date, but something that would nev ertheless have a connection with our namesake”, explains viol inist Henja Semmler. They suggested this idea to Br itish composer Charlotte Bray (born in 1982) whom the trio’s pianist Jonathan An er met by chance at a concert in Berlin four years ago, when she had just moved to t he German capital. Now in her mid-thirties, she has written a great amount of chamber music, and her cello concer to has been featured at the BBC Proms. “A magic spe ll must have been at work: just then, Charlotte was working on a trilogy of piano trios that were to be influe nced by Shakespeare”, the pianist recalls. Thus, after her first piano trio entitled Those Secret Eyes which had been inspired by Shakespeare’s Macbeth , Bray decided to search for inspiration in the dre amworld of Oberon for her next work in the same genre. ...... The resulting piano trio fantasia That Crazed Smile evokes a moonlit night where fairies join forces to shower star-crossed lo vers with dreams. Bray creates Impressionist and Su rrealist spaces, alternating between pointillist and planar structures. An elaborate, free-tonal fabric seems t o unravel before our eyes, illuminated with flashes of lightn ing. Expressively heightened moods contrast with pa ssages that are playful, almost dance-like, thus making us utte rly forget that Bray is actually applying rigorous composition technique....... For its 10th anniversary, the Oberon Trio has also allowed itself a birthday present. With the valuabl e assistance of Mansoor Hosseini (of Iranian-Swedish origin, born in 1967), they ha ve been able to arrange Mendelssohn’s Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream for piano trio. Hosseini had suggested this idea a few years ago to the violinist. Joint projects such as her world pre mière performance of his violin concerto led them t o the idea of arranging this work for their ensemble, since it ha s an obviously close connection with their chosen n ame. They worked on this version together, which will serve f rom now on as the Oberon Trio’s “calling card”.
|
Catalogue 
