Brahms Days / Intimate Communications.

Brahms was considered personally reserved, taciturn in his northern German manner, and possessed a dry wit. At the same time, he said of his music that each note was not accompanied by tears, but by drops of blood. This program explores both his half-expressions in letters and his most personal confessions in the piano songs. Hagar Sharvit, mezzo-soprano, and Michael Wendeberg, piano and recitation. 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 present a central instrument of 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 in 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 of whom are international music award winners - are just as at home on concert stages around the world as he is, promising a colorful and high-caliber concert weekend. Music and letters by Johannes Brahms.