Brahms on the Bluff Concert I: Hungarian Dance Fever

Pre-concert Discussion with Nicole Vilkner at 2:30 p.m.

The violin and violinists played an important role throughout Brahms’s life and musical development. The great Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim was a major persona throughout Brahms’s life and became one of his closest friends and confidantes. The thread of their mutual influence is woven through this entire program. The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra’s Concertmaster David McCarroll, following up on his Bluff Series debut last season, partners with David Allen Wehr for this traversal of the three sonatas for violin and piano, one of music’s most challenging and rewarding monuments. Duquesne Artist-in-Residence and world opera star Marianne Cornetti graces the stage of her alma mater, joined by violist David Harding, with their interpretation of the “Viola Songs,” which marked Brahms’s attempt at healing an unusual rift in his relationship with Joachim.

2:30p Pre-concert conversation with Benjamin Binder

Five Waltzes for Two Pianos, op. 39

Variations on a Theme of Haydn for Two Pianos, op. 56b

Hungarian Dances #1-6 for Piano Duet

Cynthia Raim and David Allen Wehr, pianists

 Brahms: A Vocal Journey

Martha Guth, soprano

Randall Scarlata, baritone

Benjamin Binder, piano