Detroit Free Press
February 9, 2009

ATOS Trio is young, but very polished; its sound, elegant

ATOS TRIO **** out of four stars
Presented by the Chamber Music Society of Detroit

BY MARK STRYKER • FREE PRESS MUSIC CRITIC WRITER

It didn't take but a few seconds for the ATOS Trio to assert its authority on Saturday at the young German piano trio's metro Detroit debut. Violinist Annette von Hehn played the elegant opening melodic gestures of Haydn's "Gypsy Rondo" Trio with stylish carriage and a burnished sound that melted as it hit the air inside the cultivated piano phrases of Thomas Hoppe and the dark warmth of Stefan Heinemeyer's cello.

Three voices, one sound: The kind of pitch-perfect unanimity of phrasing, tone, feeling and interpretation that distinguishes the finest chamber ensembles. Each player made a strong individual impression, but it was the charismatic unity and flow to the conversation and the trio's laser focus, poise and youthful energy that made the most vital impact.

No wonder the ATOS Trio, formed in 2003 and based in Berlin, is the most recent winner of the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson International Trio Award, a biennial prize spearheaded by the Chamber Music Society of Detroit. The prize, named for a top veteran American trio, includes 20 concert dates in the United States and a recording. The ATOS Trio succeeds past winners the Trio con Brio Copenhagen (2005) and Claremont Trio (2003).

Saturday's program was traditional, opening and closing with evergreens by Haydn and Beethoven (the large-scale "Archduke Trio"). In between was a thoughtful juxtaposition of two views of the night composed a century apart, Ernest Bloch's  "Three Nocturnes for Piano Trio" (1924) and Schubert's "Notturno in E-Flat, D. 897" (1825).

Beyond the aforementioned opening, Haydn's G Major Trio (Hob: XV: 25) was most notable for the songful caress of the slow movement and the devil-may-care zip of the Gypsy finale. Hoppe's marvelously feathery piano touch especially caught the ear.

In Bloch's "Nocturnes" the trio captured the shifting emotions with alluring confidence - from the moody shiver of the opening string harmonics high above the piano rumble in the basement, to the play of sweetness and passion in a central lullaby and the rollicking quirkiness of the finale. Schubert's "Notturno" was like an encore, a delicate sigh of Italianate lyricism.

After intermission, the players leapt into Beethoven's "Archduke" with secure technique and a robust attack but never allowed rising intensity to distort the music's structure or equilibrium. It was an impressive reading, sublime and invigorating, and it promised a bright future for a group that already plays beyond its years.