Brahms Trio

The centrepiece of the evening will be the two poignant piano trios by Dmitri Shostakovich, the 50th anniversary of whose death is being commemorated this year. Shostakovich, who always balanced his artistic work between political pressure and personal integrity, left behind works of great emotional and historical significance. His piano trios – the early C minor Trio op. 8 and the famous E minor Trio op. 67 – impressively reflect the dramatic upheavals and deep feelings of their time of composition.

A special discovery awaits the audience with music by Nikolai Roslavets. The now almost forgotten composer was regarded as a revolutionary innovator in the early Soviet Union, but his avant-garde musical language and innovative compositional techniques soon led him to be marginalised. Roslavets was branded an »enemy of the people«, his works were considered formalist and anti-proletarian and disappeared from concert life for decades. His music, inspired by Scriabin and Western trends, combines classical tradition with visionary modernity and opens up fascinating new sound spaces.