Three world-class musicians decided to join forces in 2011. As the Hamlet Piano Trio their reputation grows fast worldwide. All three have earned their stripes, both as soloists and as chamber musicians. The Dutch Italian and Italian Dutchman Paolo Giacometti is known as a soloist playing both modern and period instruments. Candida Thompson has been artistic leader of Amsterdam Sinfonietta since 2003, which under her leadership has developed into one of the most prominent chamber orchestras in the world and Serbian-

Russian cellist Xenia Jankovic has earned praise in recital, performing all over the world.

"We felt an affinity with the Mendelssohn piano trios ever since we first started to play together as a trio. We were also very curious to find as many opportunities to perform them on an Erard piano and with gut strings and bows to discover how this would have sounded to Mendelssohn himself. The first time we sat down to play them in this way we discovered so much, the balance was suddenly so perfectly in harmony between the three instruments and the colours we could find were increased tenfold. It was such an inspiring moment for us as musicians. We very much wanted that this moment could be captured in a cd, hence our choice of these two incredible piano trios for our first cd as the Hamlet piano trio."