Renggli, Vlatković, Sapaar, Klinar, Haberlah, Barcza

Flautist Felix Renggli trained with Aurèle Nicolet and Peter-Lukas Graf and today combines his activities as a soloist and chamber musician with teaching in Basel, Freiburg and Lugano. Horn player Radovan Vlatković is the former principal horn of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and is currently active as a soloist, chamber musician and teacher. Eldar Sapaar, an assistant professor at the Ljubljana Academy of Music, is regarded as one of the leading cellists of Central Asia. Pianist Maja Klinar graduated from the Ljubljana Academy of Music and works as an artistic associate and accompanist. Pianist Thomas Haberlah studied in Mannheim and Hanover and is currently active as a soloist, chamber musician and piano assistant. Pianist Beata Ilona Barcza is active as a chamber musician and collaborates with internationally renowned musicians.

The programme brings together a diverse selection of chamber works from the late nineteenth century to the present day. Bohuslav Martinů’s Trio for Flute, Cello and Piano, composed in 1944, combines neoclassical clarity with rhythmic vitality. Claude Debussy’s Cello Sonata signalled a shift towards a more concentrated style of expression. It is followed by the evocative solo piano suite Histoires  by the eclectic Jacques Ibert. Camille Saint-Saëns’s Romance  offers an elegant, classically balanced lyrical contrast, while Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Prayer for a Great Man  reflects an introspective mood. The second half of the programme opens with Astor Piazzolla’s Le Grand Tango  and concludes with Eric Ewazen’s suite Ballade, Pastorale and Dance, a work that is playful in character and clearly tonal in conception.