The Streeton Trio – Vienna Congress

NB Note change of date and venue. 

The Streeton Trio, one Australia’s finest classical music ensembles, performs Vienna Congress at the Sydney Opera House, a Viennese treat as sweet as any sacher torte!

The internationally acclaimed trio featuring Emma Jardine (violin), Benjamin Kopp (piano) & Meta Weiss (cello) presents masterworks by Europe’s leading composers around the time of the 1814 Vienna Congress: Schubert, Rossini and Beethoven. The concert will be introduced by special guest, Hon Dr Barry Jones AC – writer, broadcaster, popular former government minister – and music lover!

Named after the Australian Impressionist painter, Sir Arthur Streeton and described by Musica Viva as “Australia’s most internationally successful piano trio”, the Streeton Trio was formed in 2008, in Geneva, Switzerland, by three young Australian musicians.

The program explores the complex musical situation in Vienna, the capital of European music at the beginning of the 1800s. These two decades of great cultural ferment saw the Vienna Congress (1814/1815) as the turning point between the ideals of the Enlightenment and those of the Restoration. There was a radical change in the social role of music, which was no longer used as an instrument of awareness and knowledge, but instead became a narcotic, useful to disguise the harsh reality of post-Napoleonic and post-Enlightenment society. These historical circumstances deeply characterized the work of the most important composers of the time: Beethoven, Schubert and Rossini all of whom gravitated around Vienna influencing one another. 

In 2010, the trio was selected to be a part of the prestigious European Chamber Music Academy, where it was in residence for three years. Winner of the 2011 Music Viva Chamber Music Competition, the trio has been laureate of several prestigious international competitions and has won scholarships from Australia Council for the Arts, Arts Victoria and Ian Potter Cultural Trust and, in 2012, was featured as Musica Viva’s Rising Stars ensemble. It has received great acclaim for performances in venues such as, Apeldoorn Festival, Pablo Casals Festival (Prades) and Bangalow Festival. Recent performances include appearances at Wigmore Hall, Het Loo Royal Palace (Holland), Shanghai Oriental Arts Centre, Trondheim Festival and concert halls across the United Kingdom, China and Europe. They also have an impressive recording history and feature regularly on classical music radio.

The program:

Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Trio in B flat major, Op.97 “Archduke” (41 mins)

Gioachino Rossini: Overture to The Barber of Seville (arranged for piano trio) (5 mins 30secs)

Franz Schubert: Piano Trio in B flat major, D898 (38 mins)

Tickets: $60 adult | $45 conc | $30 students & children (plus booking fee)

Bookings ph: 02 9250 7777 or on-line at sydneyoperahouse.com