Trio Grünewald
Classical music into the wild, where sound, space, and time are one and the same.
«The fundamental idea at the base of our trio was bringing together our experiences, collecting the puzzle pieces of our different stories in one joint project, moved by the belief that chamber music today is only imaginable from an international perspective. Our individual artistic developments stretched from the southern countries of Spain and Italy and then, having “crossed” Germany while studying at the Musikhochschule in Cologne, reached Sweden and the city of Stockholm.» (Josep Castanyer Alonso, cellist)
International indeed is the profile of the Trio Grünewald, not just in the disparate nationalities of the musicians, but also in the wide range of influences they bring together: Josep Castanyer Alonso is a Catalan cellist currently working at Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra; Carl Ahlgren is a Swedish clarinetist, former academist in the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra as well as a substitute for different Scandinavian orchestras; Vittoria Quartararo is an Italian pianist living in Germany.
Das Trio Grünewald in seiner zweiten Heimat Schweden
The vast forest in the Swedish region of Småland. ©Vittoria Quartararo
Trio Grünewald at the Konzerthuset Stockholm. ©Anna Drvnik
Accepting the logistical challenges of a chamber music project where members are dispersed throughout Europe, the success of this unique trio relies on the perfectly balanced dimension of their Zusammenspiel (playing together). Mostly behind any logic of control, the musicians naturally connect and react to each other's impulses, movements, and ideas.The trio’s first concert tour was in the summer of 2019 in the region of Småland, southern Sweden, under the initiative of Carl and Josep, at the time both academists at the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra.
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«The concept behind that first tour was mainly one: to bring the same high-quality music-making, of which usually only a more urban and mundane public can benefit, “into the wild.” We like to perform in open spaces and village churches of Swedish areas where the forest seems not having an end» (Carl Alghren, clarinetist).
The concerts given by Trio Grünewald in south Sweden were for the public, as for the musicians, genuinely inspiring experiences. These experiences vividly revealed and re-shaped the meaning of terms like silence, sound, space, and timing.
«Out of the noisy city and the fast tempo of modern lifestyle, the interconnection between music and nature is a truth that everyone feels, a matter of fact that only finds its artistic representation and bigger resonance within the concert.» (Vittoria Quartararo, pianist)
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The Trio Grünewald has already extended their repertoire, far beyond the common conception of the trio for cello, clarinet, and piano, as a minor chamber formation. From the well-known masterpieces by Brahms (Op.114), Beethoven (Op.11), and Fauré (Op. 120), the trio focuses on lesser played works by Farrenc, d’Indy, and Zemlinsky, among others. The trio aims to recover and expand the clarinet trio repertoire by “their own hand,” commissioning new works from composers and combining them with pre-existing works, therefore presenting very versatile combinations of concert programs.
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Carl Alghren, clarinet
Josep Castanyer Alonso, cello
Vittoria Quartararo, piano