Brahms Days / Do you like Brahms "the progressive"? Brahms and the consequences.

In the 19th century, Brahms was regarded as a conservative—in contrast to the “music of the future” championed by the New Germans around Richard Wagner.  It was not until the next generation, led by Schoenberg, that the modernity of this music was discovered—and this program gives us the opportunity to explore the commonalities between him and the “Brahmsians” of subsequent generations. Piano and chamber music by Kurtág, Webern, Schoenberg—and Brahms. Performers include Sarah Jegou-Sageman, Killian White, Giuseppe Guarrera, and Michael Wendeberg. The Ebingen-born pianist and conductor Michael Wendeberg has, in recent years, played half of his programs at his piano recitals in Lautlingen Castle on small, easily portable table pianos from the Jehle Collection there, delighting the audience. This is one of the most important collections of concert-ready historical keyboard instruments in Germany. Wendeberg initiated this festival 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. Over three days, six concerts will take place, exploring various musical paths starting from Brahms. His chamber music partners in this endeavor—French violinist Sarah Jégou-Sageman, Irish cellist Killian White, Israeli mezzo-soprano Hagar Sharvit, and Italian pianist Giuseppe Guarrera, all of whom are international prize-winning musicians—are just as at home on concert stages around the world as he is and promise a colorful, top-class concert weekend. Music by Johannes Brahms, Anton Webern, Arnold Schoenberg, and György Kurtág.