Joseph Haydn - Piano Trios, Vol. 9 (Stefan Tarara; Eun-Sun Hong; Josu de Solaun)

Information

Composer: Joseph Haydn

• Piano Trio in F Major, Op. 73, Hob. XV:17
• Piano Trio in E-Flat Major, Hob. XV:36
• Piano Trio in B-Flat Major, Op. 36 No. 3, Hob. XV:20
• Piano Trio in E Major, Hob. XV:34
• Piano Trio in A Major, Op. 36 No. 1, Hob. XV:18

Stefan Tarara, violin

Eun-Sun Hong, cello

Josu de Solaun, piano

Date: 2025

Label: Naxos

_____________________

Haydn’s Piano Trios, though written for domestic performance, reveal his constant originality. He disrupts the genre’s polite expectations with sudden contrasts of mood, adventurous keys, and elaborate ornamentation. Dance elements appear frequently, including the distinctive polonaise featured here. Trio No. 20 in B-flat major showcases the considerable virtuosity of its pianist dedicatee, Maria Theresa, Dowager Princess Esterházy. On this recording, the works are interpreted by three First Prize winners of the 2014 Enescu Competition in Bucharest. Their combination of historically informed style and expressive, Romantic character brings renewed vitality and insight to Haydn’s inventive chamber music.

Stefan Tarara is a leading violinist of his generation and winner of the 2014 George Enescu International Competition. With nearly 30 First Prizes from major competitions such as Wieniawski, Paganini, Lipizer, Prague Spring and Marteau, he maintains an active international career as soloist, concertmaster and pedagogue. A graduate of the Zurich University of the Arts, where he studied with Zakhar Bron and later assisted him, he also pursued historical performance practice at the Mozarteum with Reinhard Goebel. Tarara performs widely with ensembles including CHAARTS and the Stradivari Quartett, teaches at the Zurich Conservatory, records for ARS Produktion, and plays a 1721 Stradivari (ex-Kreisler).

Eun-Sun Hong is an acclaimed cellist and First Prize winner of the 2014 George Enescu International Competition, with additional distinctions from the Penderecki, Cassado and Young Tchaikovsky competitions. She has performed as a soloist with major orchestras, including those of La Fenice, Bucharest, Moscow and Tokyo, and in prestigious venues such as the Konzerthaus Berlin, Musikverein, Wigmore Hall, Romanian Athenaeum and Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. Festival appearances include Ravello, Moritzburg, Kronberg, Casals and Prussia Cove. She premiered Penderecki’s Ciaccona for six cellos in 2015. Hong studied with Myung-Wha Chung, Lluís Claret and Frans Helmerson, and performs on a 1710 Carlo Giuseppe Testore cello.

Josu de Solaun is a Spanish-American pianist and composer known for his work as a concerto soloist, chamber musician, recitalist and improviser, and he is also a published poet. He has appeared in many leading international concert halls and is the First Prize winner of the XIII George Enescu International Piano Competition in Bucharest, joining a lineage that includes Radu Lupu and Elisabeth Leonskaja. He also won the José Iturbi International Piano Competition and the inaugural European Union Piano Competition, where he received both First Prize and the Audience Prize. De Solaun holds a doctorate from the Manhattan School of Music.