Weinzierl Palace near the town of Wieselburg (approximately 80 minutes drive from Vienna) is not well known internationally but has a very significant connection to chamber music.
It is here that
- Joseph Haydn worked during his early years,
- he composed his very first string quartets,
- the annual Haydn Festival, MUSIKFEST SCHLOSS WEINZIERL takes place. You can read more about the history of the festival here.
The Altenberg Trio Wien, the founders of this festival, is a piano trio formed in 1994 in Vienna. The Tiro is named after a Viennese poet Peter Altenberg. Since its debut during the Salzburg Mozart Week in 1994, it is one of the few full-time piano trios in Europe.
The ensemble became trio-in-residence of Vienna’s Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (Musikverein) where they perform an annual series of concerts in the Brahms-Saal. Their repertoire encompasses more than 250 piano trios, among them works that were composed specifically for and premiered by the Altenberg Trio, such as Douglas Weiland’s First Trio, opus 22 (1995) or the piano trio by the Austrian composer Friedrich Cerha (2007), which he dedicated to the Altenberg Trio.
In 1999, following the release of their recording of the complete Schumann piano trios, the Trio received the Robert Schumann Award of the City of Zwickau. Their recording of trios from Ives (Piano Trio), Copland and Bernstein (Piano Trio) won the Edison Award in Amsterdam in 2000.
Since the 2012/2013 season, the Altenberg Trio includes Christopher Hinterhuber, piano, and Christoph Stradner, violoncello, as new members. Amiram Ganz, violinist and founding member of the trio, continues to contribute his art and experience to the ensemble. Christopher Hinterhuber and Christoph Stradner together with Amiram Ganz stand for “Continuity in Change”.