Songs with piano accompaniment became one of the main ways through which the Romantic composers could convey even the most intimate emotional impulses with purity, concentration, and authenticity. Of course, such feelings are best expressed after nightfall, as performers Adam Plachetka and David Švec are aware. For this performance, they will guide the audience through a world of evening songs and nocturnal dreams.

EPSG:4326

Czech Chamber Music Society • Adam Plachetka

Rudolfinum

Large-scale chamber music with piano from the Romantic period almost always means expansive arrangements, sweeping themes, sharp contrasts and tonal opulence. Our solo horn player, Geoffrey Winter, has put together a program for the opening of our chamber concert season at the Beethoven-Haus, in which Johannes Brahms‘ early horn trio is certainly the best-known piece, but not the longest. Why do composers compose? The highly romantic program around piano and horn, one piece more beautiful than the other, provides three answers to this question – and we find that these answers do not allow any conclusions to be drawn about the nature of the composition, its quality, its accessibility or its details: The young Johannes Brahms composed (at least part of) his trio when he was mourning the death of his mother. Mourning, coming to terms with the death of a loved one. Walter Rabl submitted his Quartet op. 1 to a composition competition and won a prize – the jury included none other than the now graying and famous Johannes Brahms. And Zdeněk Fibich’s themes for his piano quintet come in part from his thoroughly erotic musical diary, a collection of hundreds of piano pieces that the composer wrote for his lover, pupil and librettist Anežka Schulzová. And what does this music do to us? Everyone has to find out for themselves …

Piano quintet

Beethoven-Haus Bonn

Marco Chen (G.P.D. '24) presents a clarinet recital.

Student Recital: Marco Chen, Clarinet

Boston Conservatory at Berklee

Ringing in the New Year with a concert has long been considered good form in Austria. Wolfgang Hentrich and the German String Philharmonic have already celebrated numerous successes on the Austrian concert stage and, together with the magnificent pianist Rafał Blechacz, invite you to a joint kick-off for 2026. The program is based on the motto "Con anima!" – when composers want to hear their works played this way, they desire a particularly emotional expression, a "soulful" way of making music. And this New Year's program is soulful through and through. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart returned to Salzburg from Italy with his father shortly before Christmas 1771, brimming with new ideas and impressions he had brought back from the south. He soon composed three divertimenti – pure light music – for his new employer in Salzburg, Prince-Archbishop Colloredo. The first Divertimento, K. 136, became particularly famous, opening cheerfully with an elegantly floating first movement. It is no surprise that the melody is one of the best known from Mozart's pen. After this introduction, we are on our way to Paris; the city on the Seine was also the destination of the 20-year-old Frédéric Chopin when he premiered his Piano Concerto in E minor in October 1830. The concert was a musical farewell to his Polish homeland, which the composer shares with the piano virtuoso Rafał Blechacz. For more than 20 years, the young pianist has been a fixture in the international concert scene, not only as a proven Chopin expert – these joint appearances with the German String Philharmonic are already their second collaboration. And finally, a New Year's Concert can also offer a colorful bouquet: in the second half of the program, Wolfgang Hentrich and the String Philharmonic dedicate themselves to a rich selection of the most popular orchestral pieces by Vivaldi, Smetana, Dvořák and the Strauss dynasty, which provide an atmospheric round-off to the start of the year. Happy New Year!

Con anima! German String Philharmonic / Hentrich

Mozarteum Foundation

A musical journey of emotion and virtuosity as well as remarkable orchestral movements awaits you at this concert, which will offer works from Czech and foreign music. The Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, led by conductor Jiří Habart, will present three compositions.

Zdeněk Fibich

Events

Upcoming events

Jan 9, 2026

Con anima! German String Philharmonic / Hentrich · Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum

Mar 2, 2026

Rachmaninoff's Second · Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra

Past events

Dec 16, 2024

Czech Chamber Music Society • Adam Plachetka · Czech Philharmonic

Nov 25, 2024

Piano quintet · Beethoven Orchester Bonn

About

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