Trio Isimsiz’s performance at the City Recital Hall was a Romantic delight. Though presenting a concise program of only three pieces, the trio managed to pack a musical punch that traversed the highs and lows of emotional extremes.
Formed in 2009 at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the trio is made up of violinist Pablo Hernán Benedí, cellist Edvard Pogossian and pianist Erdem Misirlioglu. While all three members enjoy great success as individual musicians, it is their ensemble work that has taken them to stages around the world. The group has performed in concerts and competitions across Europe, China and Argentina, winning the prestigious Trondheim Competition in 2015 and several chamber music fellowships.
The concert opened with Brahms’s luxurious Piano Trio in C minor. Across the piece’s four movements, the trio expertly captured both the melodramatic melodies and more meditative moods that define much of Brahms’s Romantic compositions. While the piece’s energetic moments allowed the trio to showcase their technical capacities including the extensive pitch range of the strings, it was the slower movements that really exemplified their rare musical sensitivity. The piano’s loose chordal accompaniment and the pizzicato arpeggios of the strings created a gentle lullaby quality that felt akin to a musical hug.
The second piece, Piano Trio by contemporary Spanish composer Francisco Coll, represented a dramatic shift away from Brahms’s lush lullaby-like melodies. Coll’s four-part trio was described by the group as “always transforming… like looking through a kaleidoscope”. This idea was expressed through the unravelling dissonant lines and scattered pizzicatos, which together created a sparse musical landscape that seemed to perpetually shift tonality. Despite the initial shock of Coll’s modernist minimalism, a key highlight was the hypnotic piano solo in the upper register, and the airy violin extended notes. Here was something eerie, but also strangely beautiful.
Schubert’s Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat major marked a rambunctious return to the Romantic style for which the group is most celebrated for. The piece showcased the vocal quality of Schubert’s composition style through the seamlessly interwoven melodic dialogue between the instruments. While the piece allowed all three players to display their gift of storytelling through music, it was the cello’s moment to shine. Edvard’s rich, woody timbre in his solo sections created a tender mood, reflecting Schubert’s own reflection that this piece makes “the trouble of our human existence disappear”.
Through their skilful blend of traditional Romantic works with more surprising contemporary styles, Trio Isimsiz created a beautiful program that captured the power of music to heal, uplift and console.
Trio Isimsiz performed at City Recital Hall in Sydney on 13 October 2025.
