The first public appearance by the Trio was given in its founding year (1998) on the occasion of the inauguration of the Pleyel Museum in Ruppersthal, the birthplace of Ignaz Pleyel (1757–1831), who was an important composer and piano maker in his day, as well as being a cosmopolitan who founded his workshop in Paris for building pianofortes. The “Pleyel Trio Wien” introduced an original instrument, built in 1831, from the Pleyel workshop.

The furth er activity of the Trio, with its repertoire focus on the music of the classical period, developed with the search for forgotten, practically unknown names today of composers of this period in the cause of extending the repertoire. Thus the three musicians, above all the pianist Hrvoje Jugovic, have sought with great inquisitiveness in the archives, libraries and publishing houses for scores and manuscripts of piano trios by differing composers, and then performed them. Not only great names, such as the likes of Haydn, Mozart or Beethoven, were a focus of their interest, quite the opposite: on the “Pleyel Trio Wien” programmes we find, above all, lesser-known composers from the countries of the former imperial monarchy, such as the Czech Republic, Hungary and Croatia.

When one considers that it is a matter of the century of the great French Revolution, of a time in which the emancipated middle classes adopted the habits of the aristocratic salon, about the time of the spreading and democratising of musical education on the whole, and in the case of music of a significant change in style in the compositional sphere, and in the social sphere by a spreading and enlarging of the need for musical works (also above all in the area of chamber music writing), it must be maintained that the “contemporary” European production of music of the 18 th and the beginning of the 19 th centuries was significantly greater and in various national cultures further developed as is given to be understood in the concert programmes of today. This therefore offers a broad field of research for musicians wishing to present to the music lovers of today the works on authentic instruments and in the most faithful interpretations possible.

In our time, in which so much is spoken of and written with great enthusiasm of cultural diversity, the playing of the pianist Hrvoje Jugovic, the violinist Markus Hoffmann and the violoncellist Günther Schagerl, who together form the “Pleyel Trio Wien”, is a welcome example for the proclaimed ideal of the present time. With their playing, they invigorate the presence of a time in which multiculturalism and the harmonising music in the classical style was a reality.

Dr. Zdenka Weber, Zagreb
 

Hrvoje Jugovic, fortepiano
Studied piano at the Music Academy under Jurica Murai in his city of birth, Zagreb, and at the Vienna University for Music and Performing Arts under Noel Flores, together with pianoforte under Malcolm Bilson, Bart van Oort and Jörg Demus. He performs solo and in chamber music formations. Awards from the Croatian Music association.