"The little piece is exceptionally melancholy," Johannes Brahms let his friend Clara Schumann know about his Intermezzo op. 119 No. 1. Every bar has to sound "as if you want to suck melancholy out of every single one [Note]." The same can be said for several other of the 20 titles from the collections op. 116 to op. 119, with which the romantic composer concluded his piano works in 1892 and 1893. In his review, the critic Eduard Hanslick aptly spoke of "monologues, such as Brahms holds in lonely evening hours with himself and for himself, in defiant pessimistic rebellion, in brooding ruminations, in romantic reminiscences, sometimes also in dreamy wistfulness". Igor Levit plays all of these short, late masterpieces in this concert.

18.30, Festivalzentrum
Notenschlüssel: Concert introduction with Marcus Imbsweiler (made possible by the Freundeskreis Heidelberger Frühling e.V.)

Concert without intermission