Trio con Brio Copenhagen and Nicholas Algot Swensen (1:3)

Trio con Brio Copenhagen has often thrilled the audience in The Diamond, and this evening they visit the Queen's Hall as a trio extended with viola.

In the concert season 23/24, Trio con Brio Copenhagen has put together two concert evenings in The Diamond based on Johannes Brahms's piano quartets.

Hear Mahler's only surviving piece of chamber music

The violist is Danish Nicholas Algot Swensen and, in addition to Brahms' Piano Quartet No. 2, you can hear Gustav Mahler's insanely beautiful and sensitive Piano Quartet in A minor before the intermission. Mahler composed the work at the age of 16, but never completed the second movement, and today only one movement remains. Many of Mahler's works for smaller ensembles have been lost, or have given way to the great symphonies Mahler is so well known for. The Piano Quartet in A minor is the only surviving piece of chamber music by Mahler.

Ravel's piano trio is a strange escape from the war

Between Mahler and Brahms, one can hear one of the most important works for piano trio in music history, namely Ravel's trio. Ravel was aware of the difficulties of composing a piano trio – it can be a challenge to achieve a satisfactory balance between the three instruments. Ravel's solution was to make full use of the large span of the instruments, so that their melodic lines could each unfold without coming across each other. The result was an unusually rich sound universe with an orchestral sheen to it – a strange escape of thought from the war into an exotic world of bright colours and fleeting shadows with an underlying lament. Hence the endless melodies of which all three composers are exponents.

Participants

Trio con Brio Copenhagen

"Con brio" is Italian and means "with energy", and with Copenhagen as their base, the trio has toured the world with their fresh, contemporary approach to the classical repertoire. The trio was formed from the idea of the meeting between two musical couples; the two Korean-born sisters Soo-jin and Soo-Kyung Hong and the married couple Soo-Kyung Hong and her husband Jens Elvekjær. For many years, the trio has regularly thrilled the audience in the Queen's Hall, and with this season the collaboration is being taken to a new level, both with these concerts and with Music Festival Days in The Diamond, which will be created in collaboration between Trio con Brio Copenhagen and the Royal Danish Library.

Nicholas Algot Swensen

Nicholas Algot Swensen is one of Denmark's young rising stars, and has won several reputable awards, including Léonie Sonning's Talent Prize in 2020 and the P2 Prize's Talent Prize in 2021. In addition to playing with Trio con Brio, he has also performed with e.g. The Danish String Quartet and instrument colleague Nils Mönkemeyer. You can also experience him in the Queen's Hall on 28 October, when he visits The Diamond together with the pianist Gustav Piekut and others.