In 2007 Frank Peter Zimmermann was able to realize his long-cherished dream to establish a string trio, together with Antoine Tamestit and Christian Poltéra. Three individually superb string players do not necessarily add up to a top-flight trio - even if they all play on instruments by Stradivarius, as here - but Trio Zimmermann immediately made a name for itself at international festivals and prestigious concert venues. In 2010 the trio released its first recording – with Mozart's seminal Divertimento – to critical acclaim. More than 10 years later, that recording was the top recommendation in the Record Review series "Building a Library" on BBC Radio 3.
On following offerings, the ensemble explored the later repertoire for string trio: two recordings with Beethoven's contributions to the genre, and a third with works by Hindemith and Schoenberg which have garnered distinctions such as "Diapason de l’Année", the "Chamber Award" from BBC Music Magazine and a "Jahrespreis" from the German Record Critics’ Award association. For their fifth recording to date the trio went back in time, however, as the three members together prepared a performing version of Bach's Goldberg Variations, described as "a triumph of combined technical ingenuity and musical insight" in "The Strad". These five recordings have now been collected into the present box, offering lovers of chamber music more than five hours of glorious music-making, in top-notch sound and including the original booklets with full documentation. © BIS Records