Radio String Quartet Vienna
Vienna, Austria
Sunday 12 Oct 2008
Festival City
Berlin's reputation as a catalyst for creative music making remains intact with the sans bass trio of drummer Christian Lillinger, guitarist Ronny Graupe and tenor saxophonist Philipp Gropper, whose collective enterprise this is. Its title misleads, for this is no problem child and they bear very favourable comparison with Berlin's other great trio of the same instrumentation, Der Rote Bereich. While individually they have been working with musicians like eminent German pianist Joachim Kuhn, three CDs over five years playing together have likewise yielded their own rewards. There is an unspoken rapport at work that allows freedom and individualism from three exceptional young players to co-exist with compositions that ask for the highest levels of group performance. It's a dialogue with a wide subject matter, from trashy riffs to lovely abstract melodies.
