“A magic dwells in every beginning”, as Hermann Hesse’s poem “Stufen” (“Steps”) says. This matinee is also about special beginnings and special magic, with works by Schubert and Strauss, written at the beginning of their compositional careers, at the age of only 19. Schubert’s Adagio and Rondo concertante is a special rarity, a piano concerto “en miniature”, with string accompaniment only. This is all the more remarkable given that Schubert was not a particularly distinguished pianist and therefore never really considered the piano concerto genre. The following words of Johannes Brahms have been handed down to us: “In the past we had geniuses and no scholarships. Today we have scholarships, but where are the geniuses?” He thought differently, however, when it came to Richard Strauss and his early piano quartet. This won first prize in the composition competition of the Berlin Tonkünstlerverein in 1885, and thanks to Brahms’ personal intervention, was premiered in Meiningen. For Richard Strauss, the brilliant young composer, this was doubtless a tremendous experience.
