From our first rehearsal we found ourselves in our very own 'electrical soil.' The chemistry among the three of us, both emotional and intellectual, was apparent immediately. We played together easily from the first notes, but we have never stopped questioning. Each of us in our own way has been a pioneer, and our rehearsals are punctuated by passionate discussions about what we are doing and why. There's a certain missionary zeal to our work - and the results are exhilarating. - Libby, David and Jaap

With David Breitman playing a beautiful copy of a fortepiano of the appropriate period, and Jaap ter Linden on cello, we have a ball playing the piano trios of Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Mozart, and many others of the classical and early Romantic periods.

 

 

 

 

 

"Good music doesn't only affect us when it's new; on the contrary it strikes us more forcefully the more familiar we are with it." -Goethe


Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms are certainly familiar, but the Oberlin Fortepiano Trio's fresh approach makes them new again. Masters of their instruments and passionate about the repertoire, Elizabeth Wallfisch, Jaap ter Linden and David Breitman bring eighteenth- and nineteenth-century style to life. They've done their homework, but there's not a whiff of the schoolroom in the results. In their hands the old instruments and approaches to rhetoric, rubato, portamento and vibrato have the ring of authority.

 

 

 

Comprised of three of the world's foremost interpreters of music on period instruments, the Oberlin Fortepiano Trio was formed in 2003 following a chance meeting in the hallowed halls of the Conservatoire of Den Haag. So thrilled were the players with the musical results of this encounter that they decided to undertake their first tour of the United States in 2005. This was followed the next year by another American tour when they played in Michigan, New York State and Ohio. They now make their American tour an annual event. Tours to UK, Italy, Europe, China, Australia and New Zealand are in the pipeline.

The Oberlin Fortepiano Trio is arguably the finest trio of its kind in the world today, embodying a kind of period-instrument 'super group'.  Elizabeth Wallfisch, Jaap ter Linden and David Breitman are each at the top of their field in the performance of music on original instruments; and when great players like these perform together, sparks really do fly.

 

"Music is the electrical soil in which the spirit lives, thinks and invents."- Beethove

Some of our programmes to date: 

Schubert Nocturne in Eb 

Mendelssohn 'Song without Words' for Cello and Piano

Mendelssohn Trio in C minor 

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Beethoven Trio op 1 no 3 in C minor

Mendelssohn 'Song without Words' for Cello and Piano

Schubert Nocturne in Eb

Interval

Mendelssohn Trio in C minor

 

Mozart and Beethoven in Vienna, ca 1795

Mozart Piano Trio in E major, K542

Sonata for Violin and Piano in E flat major, K481 

Beethoven Variations on Mozart's 'Bei Männern' for Cello and Piano, WoO 46

Beethoven Piano Trio in E flat major, Op 1 No 1 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SchubertTrios:

Piano Trio in B-flat major, D898 

Piano Trio No. 2 in E-flat major, D929

 


 

All Beethoven, Early Works

Piano Trio in G major, Op. 1 No 2 

Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 5  No 2 

Sonata for Violin and Piano in E flat major, Op. 12 No 3 

Piano Trio in E flat major, Op. 1 No 1

 

THE LATE GREAT BEETHOVEN TRIOS:

Piano Trio in B-flat major, Op. 97, 'The Archduke'

Piano Trio in D major, Op. 70 - No 1, 'The Ghost'