Discography

Hamlet Piano Trio:
Paolo Giacometti (piano), Candida Thompson (violin) & Xenia Jankovic (cello)

Franz Schubert:
Adagio in E-flat Major Op. posth. 148 D. 897 “Notturno”
Trio No. 2 in E-flat major for piano, violin and violoncello, D. 929, Op. 100

Hamlet Piano Trio:
Paolo Giacometti (piano), Candida Thompson (violin) & Xenia Jankovic (cello)

Ludwig van Beethoven:
Piano Trio No. 5 in D major, Op. 70 No. 1 ‘The Ghost’
Piano Trio No. 6 in E flat Major, Op. 70 No. 2
Variations in G major on Wenzel Muller’s Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu, Op. 121a

Three world-class musicians decided to join forces in 2011. As the Hamlet Piano Trio their reputation grows fast worldwide. All three have earned their stripes, both as soloists and as chamber musicians.

“For our second cd we have chosen to record Beethoven trios. Once again we had an adventure playing on gut strings, classical bows and the beautiful Salvatore Lagrassa, 1815 piano from the Edwin Beunk collection. As a musician one has individual timing, ones approach to colours, articulation and phrasing which are pretty personal. It could be akin to how one uses language to express oneself. The peculiar effect of using the historic instruments is how one suddenly has a new dialect in a language that one felt relatively at home in. This opens up new expressions and creates a different sound world, every nuance of emotion or thought that has been experienced becomes more rooted, there is more edge, so many small details are more vivid in colour and articulation which gives a very different picture of the whole. Its perhaps close to a restoration of a picture only much of what is restored happens to us!
A recording is but a moment in time, hopefully capturing moments of inspiration.”

Hamlet Piano Trio:
Paolo Giacometti (piano), Candida Thompson (violin) & Xenia Jankovic (cello)

Felix Mendelssohn:
Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor, Op. 49
Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor, Op. 66

Three world-class musicians decided to join forces in 2011. As the Hamlet Piano Trio their reputation grows fast worldwide. All three have earned their stripes, both as soloists and as chamber musicians. The Dutch Italian and Italian Dutchman Paolo Giacometti is known as a soloist playing both modern and period instruments. Candida Thompson has been artistic leader of Amsterdam Sinfonietta since 2003, which under her leadership has developed into one of the most prominent chamber orchestras in the world and Serbian-Russian cellist Xenia Jankovic has earned praise in recital, performing all over the world.

“We felt an affinity with the Mendelssohn piano trios ever since we first started to play together as a trio. We were also very curious to find as many opportunities to perform them on an Erard piano and with gut strings and bows to discover how this would have sounded to Mendelssohn himself. The first time we sat down to play them in this way we discovered so much, the balance was suddenly so perfectly in harmony between the three instruments and the colours we could find were increased tenfold. It was such an inspiring moment for us as musicians. We very much wanted that this moment could be captured in a cd, hence our choice of these two incredible piano trios for our first cd as the Hamlet piano trio.”