Sonic warmth, elaboration of every detail, and a seductive expressiveness of execution, those are characteristics recurring ever so often in critical reviews of performances of the Feininger Trio. It is comprised of two members of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra – violinist Christoph Streuli and cellist David Riniker –, and pianist Adrian Oetiker. The trio is named for Lyonel Feininger, one of the first exponents of the Bauhaus art school and movement, whose Berlin studio was located close to the trio´s rehearsal room.

Czech music has always been this ensemble´s much frequented territory. There for instance, their 2013 album featured an all-Czech programme of works by Suk, Smetana and Dvořák. Not surprisingly, therefore, they have chosen Czech music as the mainstay of this Prague Spring concert. “Although this time out we have not included in our programme a work by our beloved Dvořák, right at the beginning we will play a composition that is intimately linked with him,” say the trio members. “Namely, it is the work of Dvořák´s then sixteen-year-old student, Josef Suk, whose piano trio Dvořák first heard as a freshly appointed professor of the Prague Conservatory. The two of them subsequently dissected the score during lessons and polished it up on the compositional plane, whereupon Dvořák recommended it to his publisher as a brilliantly promising achievement.”