Trioens seneste CD-udgivelse
”It is such a pleasure to find new contemporary modern music of such high caliber as this work by Hafliði Hallgrímsson (b. 1941) for string trio: Lebensfries (2022). And when performed with such charismatic intensity by the superb Ssens Trio, the listening experience is a true pleasure.
(Rush Paul, Positive Feedback, 3/4 2026).
Sonograma Magazine
Text: Núria Serra 29/4.2026
«In a time saturated with noise, this music opts for the essential and for an inner breath.
The album Lebensfries, dedicated to the music of Hafliði Hallgrímsson—an Icelandic composer and cellist born in 1941 in Akureyri (Iceland)—and performed with particularly refined sensitivity by the Ssens Trio, inhabits that delicate space where sonic contemplation becomes a vital experience.
More than a collection of works, the recording becomes a window into the composer’s intimate universe, a creator who has built a personal language from restraint, memory, and a profound awareness of time.
Hallgrímsson, trained between Iceland and the United Kingdom, brings a constant duality to his writing: on the one hand, the Nordic root, with its open landscapes, dense silences, and a certain austere spirituality; on the other, a European tradition that provides formal rigor and expressive refinement. In Lebensfries, these two forces merge into a style that avoids excess and embraces the essential. Every musical gesture seems carefully considered, every sound carries its own weight, as if the composer refuses to say more than necessary.
The title—evoking a “frieze of life”—is no coincidence. The music unfolds as a succession of moments that suggest memories or states of mind without the need for an explicit narrative.
Hallgrímsson does not explain: he suggests. And in this suggestion lies one of the album’s greatest virtues. The listener is invited to inhabit a sonic space where time seems suspended.
One of the composer’s most distinctive traits is his relationship with silence. It is not merely the absence of sound, but a structural, almost architectural element. The pauses breathe, articulate, and give meaning to the discourse. This economy of expression connects with certain contemporary aesthetics, yet in Hallgrímsson’s case it is not a matter of fashion but an inner necessity: allowing the music to emerge naturally, without artifice.
His writing for trio also reveals a deep understanding of timbre and the balance between voices. Far from seeking spectacular contrasts, the composer works with subtleties: micro-variations of color, almost imperceptible dialogues, lines that intertwine with nearly organic fragility. Here the interpretation of the Ssens Trio becomes crucial, embracing this language with precision and sensitivity that avoid any hint of neutrality. Every phrase breathes, every nuance is shaped with utmost care.
In this recording, the music of Hafliði Hallgrímsson creates a space of profoundly human beauty in which every sound seems to carry the imprint of lived experience.»
Ricercare
Fire nyere norske strygetrioer
“Jeg har en button på jakka hvor det står «I ❤ Chamber Music». Jeg bærer den på grunn av plater som denne. For dette er kammermusikk på sitt ypperste.”
……..
Ssens trio kanskje Norges aller råeste kammergruppe akkurat nå. Samspillet gnistrer gjennom hele plata. Det skinner gjennom at de både kjenner hverandre godt, og liker det de gjør.
‘Ballade’, september 2022
Norges mest ansete fagmagasin for musik.
Each piece on this meticulously played album helps illuminatiing its companions.
The Gramophone, Andrew Mellor,, august 2022
Beautifully balanced readings of a quartet of Norwegian trios.
… these are all very well-judged performances that bring out the individual characteristics of each composer. Texturally, the three players sound evenly balanced and their individual focus and technical acuity all come across in the punchiness and crispness of attack while at the same time giving voice to the expressive lyricism shared by all four pieces.
The Strad, Matthew Ry, august 2022.
Læs hele anmeldelsen he
“The Ssens Trio … plays with powerful virtuosity and unmistakable devotion to this program.”
Peter Burwasser
Fanfare Magazine jan-feb 2023
“This is quite simply one of the finest, and one of the finest played, albums of chamber music that I have encountered all year.
Strongly recommended.”
KlassiskMusikk, Guy Rickards
Mozart: Divertimento KV 563 m.m.
If you have any of those (Trio Zimmermann ( BIS), Hermitage String Trio (Chandos), Gidon Kremer, Kim Kashkashian, and Yo-Yo Ma (Sony) or Isaac Stern, Pinchas Zukerman, and Leonard Rose, (Sony), or others I haven’t mentioned, I wouldn’t tell you to throw them away, but I will tell you that this new performance by Ssens is the best I’ve ever heard, period. Talk about each instrument being primus inter pares, about every note counting and making a significant contribution to spiritual and sensuous fulfillment, that’s what you have in the Ssens’s reading. — Every note is laid bare, every nuance of phrasing and dynamic fluctuation exposed, and it’s all perfect and incredibly beautiful.
(Jerry Dubins, Fanfare Magazine)
“Aux phrasés decoupés, à la ligne dessinée et articulée du Trio Zimmermann (Bis), ou aux envolées brillantes et solistes de Gidon Kremer, Kim Kashkashian et Yo-Yo Ma (Sony Classical), les Ssens opposent des attaques fondues, des sonorités soyeuses et des textures transparentes et homogènes. Quel équilibre!”
(Fabienne Bouvet, Classica, Frankrig)
I sammenligning med Trio Zimmermanns tydelige frasering og velartikulerede, svungne linjer (BIS) og Gidon Kremer, Kim Kashkashian og Yo-Yo Mas brillante, solistiske tilgang (Sony Classical), skiller SSens Trio sig ud med egale ansatser, omhyggelig klangdannelse og gennemsigtige, homogene teksturer. Sikke en balance!
(Oversættelse Marianne Granvig)
Beethoven værker for strygetrio op. 3 og 8
“This is the players’ debut album; and with absolutely no hesitation I will say that it goes right to the top of my Beethoven string trios list….
The beauty of tone, nuanced dynamics, sensitivity to the subtleties of phrasing, and rhythmic lift are really quite spellbinding.
Listen to Sølve Sigerland play this passage (den første Menuetto i Es-dur Trioen, red.). Your heart will simultaneously ache and leap for joy. … This is an imperative purchase.”
(Jerry Dubins, Fanfare Magazine)
