ATOS Trio and the Hit Men perform in St. George for Celebrity Concert Series
By Gerard Gibbs
The Celebrity Concert Series stays true to its tradition in presenting classical music with the ATOS Trio Nov. 6. But recently, we’ve branched out, this time celebrating another form of masterpieces, “classic rock” with a performance by the Hit Men Nov. 15. The performances will take place at 7:30 p.m. at the Cox Auditorium in St. George.
Annette von Hehn, Thomas Hoppe, and Stefan Heinemeyer are the Berlin-based ATOS Trio, a leading light of the international chamber music circuit since 2003.
Praised for its warmth of sound, unanimity of phrasing, and dynamic interpretations, the ATOS Trio performs regularly at such venues as Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw, Wigmore Hall, and at noted festivals all over the world including Budapest Spring, Cheltenham, City of London, and Enescu in Bucharest.
A collection of awards and prizes includes America’s prestigious Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson International Trio Award and First Prize, Grand Prize, Musica Viva Tour Prize and Audience Prize all in the same year at the fifth Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition. The Trio became a BBC New Generation Artist 2009/11 and won a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Special Ensemble Award in 2012 which it used to support Heimathafen, a pioneering concert series in the Neukölln neighbourhood of Berlin.
Annette von Hehn plays the Yfrah Neaman Stradivari, kindly loaned by the Neaman Family with help provided by Beare Fine Instrument Society London.
The program ATOS Trio will perform on the Celebrity Concert Series includes one of the last works Schubert composed before his untimely death in 1827, his Piano Trio, Op. 100. It proved so haunting and engaging that it has been used countless times as a score to film and television alike, including the HBO series “John Adams” and even the 2011 action thriller starring Jason Statham, “The Mechanic.” Their program rounds out with another monumental work, Beethoven’s Archduke Trio, Op. 97. Although considered output from his “middle period,” the trio was composed and first performed while Beethoven was completely deaf. At a rehearsal of the trio, another German violinist and composer, Ludwig Spohr noted, “On account of his deafness, there was scarcely anything left of the virtuosity of the artist which had formerly been so greatly admired. In forte passages, the poor deaf man pounded on the keys until the strings jangled, and in piano he played so softly that whole groups of notes were omitted, so that the music was unintelligible unless one could look into the pianoforte part. I was deeply saddened at so hard a fate.”
The Hit Men are real rock and roll legacy performers, not the actors from the Broadway shows but the former stars of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons who toured the world with Frankie back in the day and are now on their wildly successful reunion tour across the U.S. Members of The Hit Men were also performing and recording a with Tommy James and the Shondells, Carly Simon, Cat Stevens, Jim Croce, Elton John, and other mega-star acts of the ‘60s, ‘70s, and ‘80s. In their multimedia experience show, The Hit Men perform their great Four Seasons hits and many more No. 1 songs they helped make famous and share with the audience great backstories from their days on the road and in the studio with Frankie, Tommy, Carly, Cat, Jim, and Elton. The perfect show for baby boomers!
The names of the hit songs they either recorded or performed on tour include “Who Loves You,” “Oh What a Night,” “Dawn,” “Let’s Hang On,” “Sherry,” “Walk Like a Man,” “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You,” “My Eyes Adored You,” and other Four Seasons hits, plus the Shondells’ “I Think We’re Alone Now,” “Hanky Panky,” and “Mony Mony”; Jim Croce’s “Bad Bad Leroy Brown,” and “Don’t Mess Around with Jim”; Carole King’s “The LocoMoon”; Carly Simon’s “You’re So Vain” and “You Belong to Me”; Elton John’s “Crocodile Rock” and “Saturday Night”; and Cat Stevens’ “Peace Train.”
Tickets for the Atos Trio are $25 for the ATOS Trio and $30 for The Hit Men and can be purchased online at dsutix.com or by calling (435) 652-7800.
