Trio Testore
Biography Trio Testore
Trio Testore
The multiple prize winning, highly acclaimed pianist Hyun-Jung Kim-Schweiker and cellist Hans-Christian Schweiker, chamber music partner of the legendary Amadeus Quartet and Professor of Violoncello and Chamber Music at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln (Cologne Academy of Music and Dance), founded the TRIO TESTORE in the year 2000, after concertizing throughout Europe for several years as the Duo con Aura.
Since 2015 the internationally renowned violinist Sebastian Hamann, soloist, chamber musician and Professor of Violin and Chamber Music at the music conservatories in Lucerne and Freiburg (successor to Prof. Rainer Kussmaul), is the newest member of the Trio. Through his enormous stage presence and highly expressive and colorfully diverse style, he is an immense addition to the inexhaustible musical creativity of this already highly respected ensemble.
An active international career and excellently reviewed CD recordings testify to the highest quality of the ensemble. Ever since their release of the complete piano trios of Johannes Brahms on SACD (Audite), which caused a sensation around the world, the TRIO TESTORE has become a household name in the music world and is highly praised as an extraordinary ensemble for the intensity and originality of its interpretations by the media and audiences alike.
After the Trio's debut release in 2011 of works by Brahms and Shostakovich on the Audite label came the release of the aforementioned complete cycle of Brahms piano trios in 2013, which received praises of the highest order from the international press. In 2014 they released their next SACD of works by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, which once again generated a highly positive response in the international press (Gramophone, Pizzicato, Fanfare, etc.) and was nominated for the "International Classical Music Award 2015."
"The Trio Testore is an ensemble which is capable of acting as a single organism. Chamber music in a truly exquisite category". - MDR -
„... with the sensibility that these players reveal, it comes across with touching sincerity ... Tchaikovsky found an emotional and textural balance here that the Testore tap purposefully and with considerable power and impetus ...“ --Geoffrey Norris - Gramophone Awards Issue, September 2014
„the performance here is exemplary, finding all the nuances of the composer's highly individual sound world.“ --Barry Forshaw Classical CD Choice, 12th October 2014
„This is as fine a performance of the Tchaikovsky Trio that you’ll ever find with these players putting their hearts and souls into the music.“ --Bruce Reader, The Classical Reviewer, 14th December 2014
