Claus-Christian Schuster, piano

Amiram Ganz, violin

Alexander Gebert, cello

Biography

Since its “official” debut during the Salzburg Mozart Week in January 1994, the Altenberg Trio Vienna is one of the few full-time piano trios in the world of chamber music and has, in over 900 performances, earned a reputation of one of the most daring and consistent ensembles of its kind.

The Altenberg Trio enjoys a splendid reputation among international chamber music ensembles. They have been enthusiastically received in the United States, Canada and such European countries as Denmark, France, Switzerland, Holland, the Czech Republic (Prague Spring Festival) and Italy, as well as their native Austria. Their repertoire encompasses no fewer than 250 piano trios, among them works that were composed for and premiered by the Altenberg Trio.

At the time it was formed, the ensemble became Trio-in-residence of Vienna´s Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, the renowned Musikverein, where it gives an annual series of concerts in the Brahms Saal. They are also the Trio-in-residence of the Vienna Conservatory, where the trio gives masterclasses and seminars.

In addition, the Altenberg Trio performs regularly at the International Brahms Festival at Muerzzuschlag in Austria, whose Claus-Christian Schuster is its Artistic Director and for the Accademia di Musica di Pinerolo (Piedmont), where the trio offers monthly masterclasses for young ensembles.

The players – Claus-Christian Schuster, Alexander Gebert and Amiram Ganz – have impressive individual reputations in chamber music circles and take great pride in remaining faithful to the style and tradition of the “Viennese sound” so often admired in reviews. They chose their name in honor of the revered Viennese poet Peter Altenberg, who was a contemporary and compatriot of several renowned Viennese artists at the turn of the century: Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, Gustav Mahler, Egon Schiele, Oscar Kokoschka and Gustav Klimt.

The Altenberg Trio currently has 10 recordings on the Vanguard Classics label in repertoire ranging from German and French classics to American music. 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 of Ives, Copland and Bernstein won the Edison Award in Amsterdam in 2000.

Amiram Ganz plays a violin by Goffredo Cappa (Saluzzo 1686), Alexander Gebert a cello by Frank Ravatin (Vannes 2005).

Pianist Claus-Christian Schuster was born in Vienna in 1952. He studied in Vienna, Bloomington, Indiana and at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory, working with his father, with Wilhelm Huebner, Hans Graf, Dieter Weber and Vera Gornostayeva. His encounter with Wilhelm Kempff in Positano, Italy, left an indelible impression upon him. He won awards at several international piano and chamber music competitions, performing as a soloist until 1984. That same year he founded the Vienna Schubert Trio, a regular guest at the most important music centers and renowned chamber music festivals (Musikverein/Vienna – with their own cycle since 1988; Salzburg Festival, Teatro alla Scala/Milan, La Fenice/Venice; Concertgebouw Amsterdam, etc.). After the Vienna Schubert Trio disbanded in 1993, he founded the Altenberg Trio Vienna with his collegues Amiram Ganz and Martin Hornstein (replaced by Alexander Gebert in 2004), thus continuing and even intensifying his international chamber music activities.

Between 1976 and 1986 Claus-Christian Schuster taught at the Vienna Musikhochschule. In addition to performing widely, he and his colleagues give a series of seminars for chamber music majors at the Vienna Conservatory as well as master classes in Europe and the United States.

Violinist Amiram Ganz was born in Montevideo in 1952. He began studying violin in Uruguay with Israel Chorberg, the Leopold Auer-pupil Ilya Fidlon, and Jorge Risi. At the age of 11 he won the Jeunesses Musicales Competition and then continued his studies with Richard Burgin in the U.S.A. and Alberto Lysy at the International Academy of Chamber Music in Rome. Studying on a scholarship at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory between 1974 and 1979 he

met Victor Pikaisen, who became his teacher. As a finalist and award winner of several international competitions (Long-Thibaud/Paris, ARD/Munich, etc.), he became first concert master of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg in 1980. From 1987 until the foundation of the Altenberg Trio he was the violinist of the Shostakovitch Trio, appearing at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Tchaikovsky Conservatory Moscow, etc. In 1994 he became a founding member of the Altenberg Trio of Vienna.

Since 1981 Amiram Ganz has been teaching at the Strasbourg Conservatory; as a member of the Altenberg Trio he is now in charge of a series of seminars for course music majors at the Vienna Conservatory.

Cellist Alexander Gebert was born in 1977 to a musical family in Warsaw. When he was three years old, they moved to Finland, where in 1982 he started to study cello with Timo Hanhinen at the Turku Conservatory. Later he became a student at the Sibelius Academy in the classes of Victoria Yaglig, Kazimierz Michalik and Heikki Rautasalo. From 1995 through 1998 he received a Polish state scholarship to study at the Chopin Academy in Warsaw. After his graduation there he continued his studies with Philippe Muller at the Paris Conservatory and on a DAAD scholarship with Natalia Gutman in Stuttgart. In 2002 he was granted a three-year scholarship from the Groupe Banques Populaires in Paris.

Alexander Gebert won his first international contest at the age of 16. In 1997 he came in second at the Lutoslawski Competition in Warsaw, and in the year 2000 he won Third Prize at the Antonio Janigro Contest in Zagreb, Second Prize and Audience Prize at the International Geneva Cello Competition (where he played with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Heinrich Schiff conducting), and First Prize at the Valentino Bucchi Contest of Rome subsequently.

Mr. Gebert has widely performed both as a soloist and as a chamber musician at many prestigious venues (Kuhmo Festival, Oleg-Kagan-Musikfest, Festival de Deauville, Ravinia Festival). In 2004 he was invited to join the Altenberg Trio Vienna.

December 2006
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Press Excerpts

Altenberg Trio performing at the Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa

“Headline: Encore and applause for the Altenberg Trio
Mozart, as performed by the Altenberg Trio offers lively rewards: it is flowing, exceptionally limpid; alert, conversant and richly colored. Takemitsu’s ‘Between Tides’ was shining, suspended, transfiguring. The audience applauded warmly at the end; and an encore – the unusual, ironically sparkling ‘Intermezzo bizzaro’ by Ghedini – a further indication of the Trio’s curiosity and creative urge to explore – ended the recital.”

Il Secolo XIX, April 5, 2006 (translated from Italian)

Saint-Saens Piano Trios, Challenge Records

“The Altenberg Trio plays all of this delightful music expertly in these recordings made June 2002 in Muziekcentrum, Den Bosch. Recording engineer Bert van der Wolf has provided a very close-up aural picture with a fine blend of the three instruments, all in front with mild separation, the piano in the center, violin and cello on right and left.”

R.E.B., SA-CD.net, February 2005

Dallas Chamber Music Society

“This was a performance full of surprises: the mysteriousness of the piano’s rustlings in the scherzo; the quite purposeful Adagio, but with almost lavish pushing and pulling of the big cello tune; the gradual workup to the finale’s full speed.”

Scott Cantrell, Dallas Morning News, March 2002

Mozart Society of California, Monterey

“A good-sized audience was on hand at Carmel’s Sunset Center to enjoy the artistry of the Altenberg Trio. The three distinguished artists composing the trio, pianist Claus-Christian Schuster, violinist Amiram Ganz and cellist Martin Hornsten, performed three significant works. All three musicians gave us an elegant and refined performance filled with rich details. There was a lot of lovely playing in the Beethoven and the three musicians held the audience’s attention all the way through this substantial work. As an encore, the musicians gave us a heartfelt performance of the slow movement of Beethoven’s Piano Trio, Op. 11.”

Lyn Bronson, February 11, 2000