Penrith Music Club, Monday 19 January 2009

The New Year started with a brilliant recital by an outstanding young ensemble in a program of wide ranging interest. Jane Gordon (violin), Adi Tal (cello), and Jan Rautio (piano) performed trios from four centuries, the 18th to the 21st, with great flair. A bonus to the evening was the pre-concert talk given by the composer John Casken about his Trio written in 2002. Aided by examples played by the Rautio Trio the composer identified themes, explaining their significance in the opera, and outlined the progression of ideas through the work’s five short movements. Questions and answers also helped to put us in a receptive frame of mind for music that would have otherwise been tougher to digest. Its rhythmic complexities and often quirky turns of phrase were despatched with apparent ease by these young players, clearly committed to stimulating audiences with the best of contemporary music. In fact it is difficult to imagine better advocates for the piece.
What a pity Ravel wrote only one Piano Trio: dating from 1914 its unique blend of French folksong, impressionistic harmony and virtuoso writing for all three instruments sets it apart as a very special work. The Rautio Trio did it full justice with poetic playing of great assurance. Jan Rautio rose to all the challenges of the exuberant piano part, Adi Tal constantly drew the most beguiling sound from her 1765 Guadagnini cello and Jane Gordon provided a singing treble line that was always authoritative and flexible. She produced a rich and varied tone from her newly-made violin – a fine advertisement for modern instruments. The climax in the finale is a rapturous celebration that brought the concert to a storming close.

Music at St Peter’s, Wallingford. July 2008

Roughly every other week between May and September, St Peter’s church hosts some absolutely stunning chamber concerts with some of the very best ensembles around. …..the second (evening) was an even more astounding performance from the Rautio Piano Trio, who’ve also played at London’s Wigmore Hall among other venues, a young trio who were mesmerising in their readings of Haydn, Beethoven and, in particular, Tchaikovsky’s piano trio in A minor.

Musical pointers May 2008 Wigmore Hall
They played together as an established group, and with Jane Gordon bringing a welcome splash of colour into the evening’s conventional black. …….  Jan Rautio excelled in his clarifying of Brahms’ often dense textures, and his trio played as one;

Peter Gould Concert Trust December 2007
‘DESTINED FOR GREATNESS’ For anyone watching the progress of the young performers who have played for the Peter Gould Music Trust, there would be some outstanding names.  The Belcea Quartet, who played in St Mary’s Church several years ago, are now playing in the greatest concert halls in the world to rave reviews.  Alison Balsom is regularly heard on Classic FM and has become something of an idol with its listeners.  Llyr Williams, who has now played twice for the Trust, is being hailed as one of the most outstanding pianists of his generation.  Will the Rautio Trio follow in these footsteps?
On hearing their concert at Theatr Mwldan, the evidence certainly points towards them being a trio destined for great things.  Their programme was carefully chosen to showcase their individual talents as well as their collective musical intelligence.  The Mozart trio was a sparkling and winning start to the concert. Ravel can sometimes present problems for the audience, but Mr S, who normally passes such music off with a grumpy ‘it’s French…’ was quite blown away.  The enthusiastic audience quite obviously felt much the same way and showed its appreciation loudly at the end of the work.  The final work in the recital, the wonderful late Schubert trio, was beautifully and subtly played, revealing the fabric of the music for all to see.

Chichester Assembly Room, 26th April 2007
When introducing the final event in the second series of Chichester Chamber Concerts to a full house, Chairman Michael Nott was quite obviously delighted to have secured the Rautio Piano Trio for the job.   This enthusiastic group is currently involved in a frantic schedule of concerts, recitals and master-classes all over the UK and was about to return the favour by rewarding the eager audience with one of the most compelling performances ever witnessed at the Assembly Room.
The evening started with a full and frank response to the unrestrained, occasionally light-hearted, logic of one of Haydn’s 45 piano trios, when one of the trio’s major attributes – the ability to inter-communicate in full musical flight – became abundantly clear, by way of subtle gestures and delicate glances. The next piece, Beethoven’s “The Ghost” Piano Trio, emphasised the group’s astounding musical co-ordination when Jan Rautio’s stylish piano guided his two colleagues through some unexpected rhythms and changes in pace to a truly radiant “presto” conclusion.
Brahms’ B major Piano Trio, a dramatic work that could almost be regarded as symphonic in concept – containing as it does a massive range of ideas and a variety of restless moods – provided the trio’s final test.    Once again, the star qualities of all three came spectacularly to the fore when, without hesitation, they absorbed the basics of this disturbing tour de force, responding individually whenever required, yet combining forces with an assurance and almost fanatical commitment in order to express the essential beauty and passion of Brahms’ chamber masterpiece. (John Wheatley)

Wigmore Hall Platform Concert March 2007
The Rautio Piano Trio chose to dedicate their slot to one work, Ravel’s only work for the medium. This was, in my view, a sensible idea. It gave the concert a real focus and it meant that they could deliver one of the great masterpieces of the trio repertoire. The Rautio three are an experienced group and have already assimilated the knack that marks out all good chamber music partnerships, namely the gift of making the ensemble sound natural, unforced and instinctive. Yet they also possess individual talent that makes the technical demands in a piece like the Ravel seem insignificant. What was really impressive was the way in which Ravel’s remarkable textures and harmonies were lovingly realised so that at least this member of the audience was enthralled from start to finish. How lucky we are to have such a wonderful outlet for young talent of this calibre. (Leslie East, Worshipful Company of Musicians)

North Cumbria Recitals 29th March 2007
THREE young award-winning musicians gave Haydn’s Trio in Eb an exuberant start to the first movement, the second even faster, it’s joyful complexity played brilliantly.
In Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio in D minor opus 49 they played a wide range of melodies with beautiful expressivity. In the first movement melodies were beautifully introduced by the cello and then shared by the violin and piano, followed by delicate melodies introduced by the pianist. The scherzo’s fascinating complexity was played with impressive virtuosity and in the finale they impressed us with musical energy.
Shostakovich’s Piano Trio No 2 in E minor, written in 1944, was dedicated to the memory of a fellow musician who died in a Nazi prison camp. It began with a tear-jerking cello melody with elegiac accompaniment by the others followed by fast agitation. During the third movement many of the audience bowed their heads to the beautifully played emotional melodies of mourning. It ended with a dramatic piano melody accompanied by violin and cello playing rhythmic pizzicato chords. This was a very emotional performance. (Chris Prettyman, The Cumberland News)

Park Lane Group Purcell Room January 2007: The Strad 2007
The Rautio Piano Trio gave mature and persuasive accounts of three recent British works, capturing the disquieting eloquence of Judith Weir’s Piano Trio Two, the vivid contrasts of Luke Bedford’s Chiaroscuro and the witty, discursive character of John Casken’s 2002 Piano Trio.