Vienna Piano Trio

David McCarroll, violin

Clemens Hagen, cello

Stefan Mendl, piano

Biography

Long established as one of the world’s leading chamber ensembles, and perennially fresh in its artistry, the Vienna Piano Trio was founded in 1988 by the Viennese pianist Stefan Mendl. His partners are the Californian violinist David McCarroll, a member of the trio since 2015, and the Austrian cellist Clemens Hagen, who joined in 2018. 

Together, the players embody the ensemble’s continuing commitment to bridging the traditions and practice of Europe and America. This philosophy stems from the trio’s early years and its mentoring by such ensembles as the Trio di Trieste, Haydn-Trio Wien, Beaux Arts Trio and the Guarneri and LaSalle quartets, and by the violinists Isaac Stern and Jaime Laredo.

Both sustaining and renewing the repertoire for piano trio, the ensemble complements the masterworks of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries with new works, the product of collaborations with such leading contemporary composers as Friedrich Cerha, Georg Friedrich Haas, György Kurtág, Johannes Maria Staud and Jörg Widmann.

Since the 2006-7 season the Vienna Piano Trio has had its own subscription series at the Vienna Konzerthaus and it is a regular visitor to the world’s major concert halls (such as Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Palau de la Musica Catalana in Barcelona, Konzerthaus Berlin, Wigmore Hall London and Cité de la Musique in Paris) and festivals (such as the Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, Wiener Festwochen, Mozartwoche Salzburg, Grafenegg, Rheingau, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Flanders, Aix-en-Provence, Prades-Casals, Kuhmo, Princeton Summer and Caramoor).

After 34 years, the 2021-22 season will conclude the trio's illustrious career. Engagements include a concert cycle at Vienna Konzerthaus focusing on the trios of Schubert and Mendelssohn, as well as performances in Stuttgart, Trieste, and London's Wigmore Hall. In April 2022, the trio will also make a tour of the USA and Canada, visiting Houston, Tucson, Berkeley, Ottawa, and Vancouver. The farewell season will conclude with a concert in June 2022 at Vienna Konzerthaus with friends Jörg Widmann, Thomas Selditz, und Alois Posch.

The Vienna Piano Trio’s extensive prize-winning discography on the Naxos, Nimbus and MDG labels embraces the complete piano trios of Brahms, Dvořák, Saint-Saëns, Schönberg/ Steuermann, Schubert, Tschaikovsky and Zemlinsky, as well as works by Beethoven, Haydn, Ravel, Schumann and others. The ensemble’s recent recordings include the Ravel and Chausson piano trios as well as Beethoven’s ‘Archduke’ and Op. 1 No. 3, which won the 2020 Opus Klassik award. The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music has described the ensemble’s Schubert as “outstanding in every way … wonderfully fresh and spring-like ...  true chamber-music-making by a beautifully matched team,” while its Dvořák led the Washington Post to write of “a rapport that makes the performance feel like a conversation among friends, and a high level of technical precision … an almost transcendent experience.”

David McCarroll plays a 1761 Gagliano violin and Clemens Hagen plays a Stradivari cello from 1698.