Brahms Days / You must see me in your dreams when I dream of you.

The first concert develops a dialogue between Brahms' musical mentors Clara and Robert Schumann – through their letters, read by Michael Wendeberg, and their piano songs, sung by Hagar Sharvit. This dialogue is framed by Schumann's Fantasiestücke Op. 73 and Brahms' own Variations Op. 9 on a theme by Robert Schumann. The musicians are Hagar Sharvit, Giuseppe Guarrera, and Michael Wendeberg. In recent years, pianist and conductor Michael Wendeberg, who was born in Ebingen, has delighted audiences at his piano recitals in Lautlingen Castle by playing half of his programs on small, easily portable table pianos from the Jehle Collection there. This is one of the most important collections of concert-quality historical keyboard instruments in Germany. Wendeberg initiated this festival in order to introduce the audience to a central instrument in the collection, a wonderful Bechstein concert grand piano from 1860, predestined for Brahms and related repertoire. Six concerts will take place over three days, exploring different musical paths starting from Brahms. His chamber music partners in this venture—French violinist Sarah Jégou-Sageman, Irish cellist Killian White, Israeli mezzo-soprano Hagar Sharvit, and Italian pianist Giuseppe Guarrera, all of whom are international music award winners—are just as at home as he is on the concert stages of the world and promise a colorful, high-caliber concert weekend.