The house of culture in Kaisersaal

Deutsche Version

The final concert of the season presents introverted, pastoral music to the audience. Music whose silent richness is constituted by the its inner dialogue and its closeness to the sound colours of nature reflected by the tonalities B flat major and E flat major.

The ouverture of this intimate evening is Bach's Partita no. 1 for piano whose stylised danced are embedded into the robe of steady flow of musical poetry and ornamentation but also highest joy of life and virtuosity. Music presented by our well-known artist in residence Schaghajegh Nosrati.

The first-time appearance of the clarinet within a House of Culture concert is achieved by Felix Mendelssohn's Bach-like bright and brilliant Clarinet sonata. A piece which as been composed only at the age of fifteen years. The fabulous Clarinet artist Toshiko Sakakibara - amongst others being member of the ensemble Phoenix Basel, the ensemble ApérOHR and member of Sir András Schiff's chamber orchestra Cappella Andrea Barca -presents this life-affirming and sparkling early work of Mendelssohn's oeuvre together with Schaghajegh Nosrati at the piano. 

Which out of all the works describing nature reflects its closeness to nature more tangible and plastical than Robert Schumann's mature master piece Waldszenen (Forest Scenes) for piano solo whose impressions of nature are expressed in the keys B flat major and E flat major in a seemingly bright and brilliant way but which indicate unfathomable feelings and futuristic visions  when being listened to with carefulness:

Tall as they grow, the flowers

Are pale here, as if dead.

Just one right in the middle

Stands there so dark and red.

Its hue is not from the daylight,

No sun has burned this bud,

Its red is from the earth bed,

And that drank human blood!

(poetical motto by Friedrich Hebbel put in front of the fourth piece "Verrufene Stelle" (Infamous Spot).

The idea of murder in form of a musical idea is carried by a style which was regarded as "dead" in Schumann's time - the French Ouverture which is only a fragmental, fragile framework. A comparable daring and musically visionary interaction with a certain poetic idea occurs in the seventh piece "Vogel als Prophet" (The Prophet Bird) which intrudes widely into the sound language and structures of music of 20th and 21th century.

As final work of this wonderful evening Brahms' Clarinet Sonata in E flat major, Op. 120 no. 2 is performed by the two artists, a piece which was created in 1894 approximately three years before his death and which reflects the lively and very productive interaction of the great master with his "old age love" - the clarinet - which was inspired by the encounter with the legendary clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld. A phase of late works featuring the clarinet which is completed by the Clarinet Sonata in f minor, the Clarinet Trio in a minor Op. 114 and the Clarinet Quintet in b minor Op. 115.

The characteristic wistfulness and melancholy of late Brahms in the sense of a deeply felt pain can be felt very clearly in this late work as well. The final E flat major chords of this piece which at first glance seem to be filled with great sound and powerful radiance after preceding restless E flat minor passages are much more like a reflection of its piano piece in E flat major, Op. 119 no. 4 which was composed in close temporal proximity (cf. E flat major begin and e flat minor ending).

Tickets for this wonderful evening can be purchased via online ticket shop below or alternatively at the box office. The number of seats is limited to 100 due to current restrictions (as of June 1st 2021).