2005
International Web Concert Hall Competition (Honorary Mention)
Trio di Pavia (Piano
Trio) - Italy
Giorgia Brustia
Marcello Defant
Alberto Drufuca
Why did you name your trio “Trio di Pavia”?
(Marcello response on behalf of Alessandra and Alberto).
The name "Trio di Pavia" was created because our trio met in this city.
We formed our trio to fulfill our devotion to chamber music. We were
active soloist as well as independent chamber musicians at the time.
When we decided to play together, we learned that there may be chemistry
among us that may trigger unique sparkle in music. This is evident during the rehearsals.
In rehearsals,
we constructively challenge each other’s ideas, respectfully.... Much of
our musical tastes varies in many degrees... To overcome such, we discuss, we argue,
but in the end, because our heart for music is
before anything else, we are able to link all of our opinions of
interpretation and summarize in the music in front of us.
How do you compromise your interpretation to music?
When a new piece is ready to perform after countless rehearsals, we
always find a solution to all our differences; we feel as if it had a
life of its own, well beyond what anyone of us would have seen in it
just by himself. You have to understand that sometimes when musicians
get too used at solving musical problems together, they lack freshness
and novelty. We feel, each time we meet and work together, like friends
who live separate lives but be together and discuss their experiences
and try to explain through music.
I guess respect to each other comes before anything for your group…
Yes, friendship means a great deal in our trio; we come from
different backgrounds and we have different interests in addition to
trio. We don't even live in Pavia any more, none of us do! But friendship
is what keeps us together in the first place, which gives us the
willingness and the strength of rehearsing on a regular basis, even in
different places, makes us enjoy the time we spend together, and
probably reflects this joy into our playing.
How do you select your repertoire?
The choice of our repertoire reflects as much as our difference in
ideas. We love Mozart’s work, we began performing all of his piano trios
in Milan (2 concerts, and one more to come) and we find it
exhilarating, we hope we can repeat this experience again and again.
Until we began practicing Mozart, we thought "our" repertoire would be
mostly late romantic works. However, we discovered that our strength, as
a group, goes beyond that. Therefore, we drove ourselves to classical
and others areas of works.
Do you currently have manager?
Unfortunately we don't have any. It is very difficult here in Italy to
have one or be interested by a management company, unless you win some
big competition... Unfortunately, we are too old to enter any competition when
we found each other to play the trio. At this time, we do everything by
ourselves in promoting and scheduling concerts. Its a hard work,
however, it proves that we really want to stay together!
What is your current trio repertoire?
We began our trio activity several years ago
by "exploring" late romantic and early 20th century Russian end
East-European repertoires. It was a sort of "Sturm-und-Drang" that led
us through the works of Rachmaninoff, Tchaikovsky, Arenski, and
Shostakovich. Then, we gradually drew chronologically backwards to
another kind of "Sturm-und-Drang", works of Schumann (Robert and Clara)
and Chopin. Our most recent interest, however, is focused on Mozart,
whose complete works for piano trio (including K1- K6) which we have
performed in Milan few months ago and we are scheduled to perform more
in Italy in the coming year.
In addition to these works, we have few
Haydn and Beethoven (op. 1 n. 3 and op. 97) trios. It is also worth
while mentioning that we have recently studied two interesting late
romantic piano trios written by Raffaello Lazzari and Sylvio Lazzari,
unknown Italian composers of Trentino region. They will probably be a
part of our next recording and concert promoting agenda.
How many programs do you have?
We combined all trio repertoires according
to the circumstances and public demand. However, we prefer, if possible,
to give our concert programs a thematic outline. Altogether, the program
includes complete Mozart (3 concert programs), the 2 Lazzari trios (1
concert program), the east-European and Russian trios (3 programs), the
Schumann and what's left, we can come up as much as 10 concert programs.
As an individual, I am sure you all have
other interests or hobbies. Tell us about your other interest and what
has drawn you to that direction?
We are very much into constantly shaping our
musical knowledge, which not only demands most of our time and energy,
but also directs our other interests towards interdisciplinary studies
in literature, philosophy, visual arts, etc. But we do have our little
unexpected oasis of non-musical interests and activities: Alessandra is
very devoted to teaching and likes drawing very much, Marcello likes to
collect classic cars, Alberto is often busy in legal and fiscal matters,
for us but also for other classical music groups!
Are you all from musical family?
None of us are from musically inclined
family. We think this is an opportunity and we walk our way with little
help from any other musician.
What other musical activities do you do
as an individual?
We all teach. Occasionally Marcello and
Alberto play in various orchestras as principals, but we wouldn't commit
to any particular orchestral employment, chamber music comes first and
it demands from us more than we can handle. Alessandra also plays piano
duo with Damyan Tudzharov and they both have few projects in progress
for two pianos.
What is your ethnic background?
We are all typical Italians, I guess. A good
mixture between southern and northern Italians, each one of us, but we
all live in the north, not far from the Milan area. This is why we were
born as Trio di Pavia.
Can you tell us one of the most unique
trio performance experiences you had?
In Pavia, we
were asked to play to commemorate the victims of a civil accident... the
city tower had fell some 700 years ago. It was at that moment when we
felt our name wasn't just another name for a trio, but it had,
throughout the years, which set a solid link between our trio, the city,
and the people. We hope this connection can develop deeper and we
sometimes feel, when we play abroad, as ambassadors of a little city
with little resonance and a great history (Pavia was a medieval capital
of the Longobard reign, and it still has unique monuments of that
foregone era).
I understand that your trio has a wide
interest in variety of musical works. However, what do you as a group
hopes to focus on (repertoire) as your trio moves forward in the future?
I think we actually answered your question,
talking about the Lazzari and the Mozart projects! Just one more
promise, to you and to ourselves, for a future to come: we want to
promote some new music, have a repertoire written for our own ensemble
and find a composer that matches our musical personalities... it takes a
lot of energies to work on this!!!
Thank you and all the best wishes for your trio.
Interviewed by
MusicalOnline on August 2005
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