Vienna Brahms Trio

Boris Kuschnir founded the Vienna Brahms Trio in 1993. That summer the ensemble made its debut at Gidon Kremer’s chamber music festival in Lockenhaus. In 1996 it won first prize at the ninth International Chamber Music Competition in Illzach, Alsace.

Kuschnir has a longstanding partnership with pianist Jasminka Stančul and cellist Orfeo Mandozzi. In addition to Brahms, the trio’s programmes include Mendelssohn, Schumann, Chausson and Debussy.

Other musicians join the trio for larger works: in 2014 Nikolaj Znaider and Julian Rachlin performed Dvořák’s Piano Quintet with the trio at the Vienna Musikverein. That year Alexandra Soumm and Benjamin Gilmore joined it for Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet in Weinfelden.

The complete Schumann piano trios were released by Naxos in two volumes in 1999 and 2000. They are among the ensemble’s central recordings.