Concert of
Absolut Trio
(Switzerland)
Bettina
Boller
VIOLIN (SWITZERLAND)
Judith
Gerster
CELLO (SWITZERLAND)
Stefka Perifanova
PIANO (BULGARIA/SWITZERLAND)
Chick Corea (b. 1941, USA):
Excerpt from Children's
Songs (1971–84)
Addendum for violin, cello and piano *
Urs Peter Schneider (b. 1939, Switzerland):
Dissonance (Dissonanz) for piano and two string
instruments (1960, rev. 1978) **
[dedicated to Bettina Boller]
A Pond with
Two Swans (Teich mit
zwei Schwänen) for piano trio (2016) **
[dedicated to Bettina Boller]
Philippe Racine (b. 1958, Switzerland):
Opus 2016 –
Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello (2016) **
[dedicated to Absolut
Trio]
Prélude
Allegro acrobatico
Cadenza 1: Fantasque
Pétrifié
Cadenza 2: Hommage à Pierrot
Nuages
Cadenza 3: Moto perpetuo
Lent,
absolument
Charles Ives (1874 – 1954, USA):
Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano (1911, rev. 1914–15)
*
Moderato
TSIAJ (“This scherzo is a joke”). Presto
Moderato con
moto
__________
* Bulgarian premiere
** World premiere
* * *
The
Swiss Ensemble Absolut Trio, founded in 2003, consistently pursues the
dialogue between the music of today and the music of the past. Artistic
involvement with contemporary music is of prime importance for the three
musicians, which is why they commission works at regular intervals. Many
significant works for piano trio (some with live electronics) have come into
being that way and they are integrated into highly evocative programmes as
valuable and rare finds that deserve to be presented to a broader audience.
Among the venues where the Trio has performed are the Art Centre in Seoul, the
Wigmore Hall in London, the Munich Gasteig, the Zurich Tonhalle and
WDR Cologne.
In
2005,
the trio caused a sensation both in Switzerland and abroad with Mischa Käser’s
staging of Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s ballet blanc Présence together with Edward Steuermann’s piano trio version of
Arnold Schönberg’s Verklärte Nacht.
During the 2006/2007 season came the acclaimed tribute to Robert Schumann with
new works by Gary Berger and Junghae Lee, who electronically expand the sound
of the piano trio. The Wigmore Hall (London) debut in April 2007 was praised to
the skies in the English specialist journals Strad and Musical Opinion.
The
first CD of Absolut Trio (still with
the cellist Imke Frank), featuring the above mentioned works by Schönberg and
Zimmermann, as well as a piece by Rudolf Kelterborn, was released on the Guild label in 2007. It was highly
acclaimed by the press and received the Pizzicato
“Supersonic” award. The second CD Wahl-verwandt-schaften
(Elective Affinities) came out
in February 2013 on the label Solo
Musica. Movements from Franz Schubert's Trios and transcriptions of Robert
Schumann's vocal duets are combined (in accordance with the idea of elective
affinities) with contemporary works from Mischa Käser und Junghae Lee. The CD
includes also the astonishing post romantic Trio, Op.1 by Swiss composer
Volkmar Andreae. The third CD of the ensemble with piano trios by Volkmar
Andreae, Sándor Veress and Raffaele D'Alessandro was realised in January 2014 by
the Musiques suisses label.
www.absoluttrio.ch
Bettina Boller's
fame started in the internationally broadcast, prize-winning musical
visualisations of Swiss Television directed by Adrian Marthaler in the 1990s,
in which she had always been the featured soloist.
She
completed her training with Hans Ulrich Lehmann in Bern (teaching and soloist's
diploma with distinction) and also studied for a brief period in the class of
Itzhak Perlman at Brooklyn College in New York.
Her
passion extends to a great variety of styles and musical activities. In
addition to classical music with emphasis on the period ranging from the early
twentieth century to the present day, she loves improvising and composing. She
has, for example, written her own cadenzas to all the violin concertos by Haydn
and Mozart and to Beethoven's Violin Concerto, and has arranged J. S. Bach's
Partita in E major for two and three violins.
She
is involved with folk music from Eastern Europe and Switzerland, and has
arranged and composed incidental music as a violin-playing actress in projects
with director Volker Hesse and others. In addition, she conceives and realises ideas
for conveying music to children and juveniles, and is a member of the ensemble
of soloists at the Collegium Novum Zürich.
Bettina
Boller has given concerts as soloist and chamber musician in most European
countries and the US (including the Centennial of Carnegie Hall).
After
obtaining her school-leaving certificate, the cellist Judith Gerster initially began studying architecture, but the
passion for chamber music that has dominated her love of music from childhood
soon compelled her to study music. She acquired her soloist's diploma in the
classes of Ivan Monighetti and Thomas Grossenbacher at the Universities of
Basel and Zurich. Her encounter and lessons with Walter Levin of the LaSalle Quartet were inspiring, and led
to her decision to pursue a career as a professional musician.
In
addition to her intensive collaboration with the Absolut Trio, Judith Gerster is a member of the Basel Symphony
Orchestra and the Ensemble Amaltea.
Participation in various projects, some featuring the Baroque cello, and
audition coaching are part of her everyday life. She still loves the visual
arts and architecture.
She
lives out a part of her artistic imagination by creating miniature collages in
boxes with materials of all kinds and sizes.
The
Bulgarian pianist Stefka Perifanova graduated with a golden
medal from the School of Music in Plovdiv (her hometown) in the class of Stela
Oslekova and Rositsa Ivancheva. Afterwards, she studied at the
“Prof. Pancho Vladigerov” National Academy of Music in Sofia with Prof. Konstantin
Ganev and Prof. Julia Ganeva (pupils of Heinrich Neuhaus) and assisted in their
piano class for four years. In 1993, she received the “Cyrillus and Methodius”
scholarship, which is highly prized in Bulgaria. That enabled her to study
further in Switzerland with Rudolf Buchbinder (concert class), Gérard Wyss
(chamber music and Lieder accompaniment) and Bruno Canino (soloist's diploma).
Stefka
Perifanova has won prizes at numerous competitions, including the Edward
Tschumi Prize for the best soloist's diploma of the year (Bern, 1999) and first
prize at the Concurso Internacional de Música Cidade do Porto (1996).
Over
and above her solo appearances, she is much in demand as a chamber musician and
Lieder accompanist on international concert platforms, and performs with
partners like Sol Gabetta, Raphael Oleg, Hansheinz Schneeberger and Györgi
Pauk. She is particularly interested in contemporary composing and has
premiered numerous works. She has performed throughout Europe and in Korea, Colombia and the United
States. She has played as soloist with a number of symphony orchestras,
including those of Plovdiv, Varna, Basel and Bern, as well as with Tchaikovsky
Symphony Orchestra.
In
addition to performing with the Absolut
Trio, Stefka Perifanova is a member of the soloists' ensemble Camerata variabile Basel, adjudicates at
piano competitions and often assists at master classes (for János Starker, Igor
Oistrakh, Menahem Pressler, Bernard Greenhouse, among others).
Stefka Perifanova has
recorded many times for the national radios of Switzerland, Sweden, England,
Slovenia, Poland, Portugal, Germany, France and Bulgaria.
She
has been lecturing at the Zurich University of the Arts since 1999
and at the City of Basel Music Academy
since 2011.
