POSTPONED: Maxim Vengerov / Polina Osetinskaya

This concert features all three of Johannes Brahms’s violin sonatas. Violinist Maxim Vengerov has chosen the Russian Polina Osetinskaya to accompany him on the piano – a top-class duo for a suspenseful evening. All three violin sonatas call for artistic collaboration at the highest level, and Brahms performed the piano part himself at the premieres. Vengerov and Osetinskaya achieve a delicate balancing act between equal interplay and providing plenty of latitude for the other.

While in the first sonata, Brahms was processing his grief for Clara Schumann’s son Felix, the second sonata is an expression of the composer’s infatuation with a young singer. The third sonata, with its four movements, is reminiscent of a symphony. Brahms wrote the work on the shores of Lake Thun, which was a very productive environment for him. Long hikes and the impressive mountain landscape certainly left their mark on this work.