“Gently Saying Farewell” – Escape to Exile II

Johannes Brahms composed his clarinet pieces during the final years of his life, inspired by his encounter with Richard Mühlfeld. In the composer’s own words, these works feel like a “gently saying farewell to the world”. At the heart of this programme is the deeply moving Trio in A Minor, which Brahms wrote in 1891 at the spa town of Bad Ischl during the last moments of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. By their choice of music, Andreas Ottensamer, Sol Gabetta and Dejan Lazić explore the powerful theme of exile and the unforeseen challenges it brings. Exile – as experienced by Béla Bartók, whose life was swept along by the dark tides of history in the last century. The bold and the unexpected – embodied by Rodion Shchedrin. And finally, the Clarinet Trio by a composer more often associated with the silver screen than with the intimate world of chamber music: the Italian maestro Nino Rota, inseparably linked to the films of Federico Fellini.