Brahms Days / Let the strings weep, lament. Brahms and the Balkans.

The second concert explores the romantic longing for a life beyond the constraints of civilization. The music for this is, of course, Balkan-Hungarian-rhapsodic, so-called Gypsy music, for lack of a better term. For it has little to do with the music of the Roma and even less with that of the Sinti – rather, it has most in common with the virtuosic music ensembles of Budapest in the 19th century, and with our imagination of unbounded freedom outside societal, bourgeois order. Music by Liszt, Ravel, Bartók – and of course, Brahms. Performing are Hagar Sharvit, Sarah Jegou-Sageman, Killian White, Giuseppe Guarrera, and Michael Wendeberg. The pianist and conductor Michael Wendeberg, born in Ebingen, has in recent years played half of his programs on small, easily portable square pianos from the local Jehle collection during his piano evenings at Lautlingen Castle, delighting the audience. This collection is one of the most important collections of concert-capable historical keyboard instruments in Germany. To introduce a central instrument from the collection, a wonderful Bechstein concert grand piano from 1860, ideally suited for Brahms and related repertoire, to the audience, Wendeberg initiated this festival. Over three days, six concerts will take place, exploring different musical paths starting from Brahms. His chamber music partners for this endeavor – the French violinist Sarah Jégou-Sageman, the Irish cellist Killian White, the Israeli mezzo-soprano Hagar Sharvit, and the Italian pianist Giuseppe Guarrera, all international music award winners – are just as at home on concert stages around the world and promise a colorful, high-caliber concert weekend. Music by Franz Liszt, Béla Bartók, Maurice Ravel, and Johannes Brahms.