Piano & Co: Beethoven - Music for Cello and Piano

Lorian Simma, principal cellist of the Mozarteum Orchestra, and Shao-Yin Huang, professor at the Tyrolean State Conservatory, present a rich program spanning from the Classical to the Modern periods. Ludwig van Beethoven was a master of variation, and Mozart was his great role model. The duet between Pamina and Papagena from the first act of The Magic Flute, touching in its lyrical warmth, inspired him to compose a series of concise variations for cello and piano. From the song-like, simple theme emerges a roundelay of artful character pieces. Beethoven was also the first major composer to devote himself intensively to the cello sonata genre, of which his Op. 69 is a masterful example. Following an imaginative piece by the internationally acclaimed Tyrolean composer Thomas Larcher, the concert concludes with Johannes Brahms’s second and final cello sonata, in which passionate expressiveness is combined with the finest harmonic craftsmanship.