Name: Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin »Chopin plus«
Start: 2027-06-13T20:00:00
End: 2027-06-13T20:00:00

Charlotte Sohy found various ways to conceal her name: sometimes she shortened it to “Ch. Sohy,” and other times she adopted the masculine-sounding name “Charles Sohy.” Around 1900, being a woman was a significant obstacle for a female composer—an experience that would accompany Sohy throughout her life.

Although she studied with Louis Vierne and Vincent d’Indy, was esteemed by her contemporaries, and saw private performances of her works, even the name change could not open many doors for her. After her death, her music largely fell into obscurity until a grandson rediscovered her manuscripts decades later. Among them was the “Thème varié,” which Sohy dedicated to her friend Nadia Boulanger.

In it, two musical themes undergo variations in impressionistic keys of varying hues—“with a determined yet also anxious and mysterious character,” as the composer herself noted, “as if the variation were only gradually coming to realize its own strength.”

Johannes Brahms takes a very different approach to his Double Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Orchestra: It begins powerfully and uncompromisingly, almost like a musical stroke of fate. The two solo instruments come to the fore in virtuosic cadenzas, and their dialogue gives rise to an increasingly turbulent fantasy.

Brahms gives the cello a powerful, distinctive main theme, while the violin responds with a sighing secondary theme. In the first movement, the two engage in an interplay of passionate dialogues and moments of calm, before the music opens up into ethereal, almost idyllic realms. In the finale, the Hungarian dance finally returns, bringing the work to a close with dance-like verve.

About 30 years earlier, Brahms had been working on a serenade—while simultaneously struggling with his First Symphony. The result is light-filled, romantic music that repeatedly evokes Haydn and Mozart. The six movements draw on the tradition of classical divertimenti: courtly dances, echoes of table music, and varied, light-footed characters come together to form a whole that is as charming as it is sophisticated. Brahms plays with archaic melodies, Ländler, and stylistic allusions, repeatedly relying on warm, velvety timbres. A musical delight that is far too rarely heard in concert.