RIAS Kammerchor Berlin I

Johannes Brahms likely had the same idea in mind when he composed his “Liebeslieder-Walzer” (Love Song Waltzes) for voice and piano four-hands, drawing on the “Viennese” three-four time signature in a variety of ways.

The RIAS Chamber Choir Berlin will perform both works at the Musikfest Berlin, together with the piano duo GrauSchumacher—which, according to the *Süddeutsche Zeitung*, has “perfected four-hand piano playing”—and the wind section and timpani of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie. Henze’s ethereal and mysterious *Notturno* will serve as an atmospheric opener. Gregor Meyer will conduct.

“Unfortunately, not by me!” was Johannes Brahms’s comment on the waltz *On the Beautiful Blue Danube* by Johann Strauss (son), which was originally composed as a choral piece for the Vienna Men’s Chorus. Especially in his early years, the Hamburg composer—described by Eduard Hanslick as “serious and taciturn”—drew inspiration from the waltz-filled bliss of his new adopted home, which also led to the Liebeslieder-Waltzes, Op. 52, set to poems from Georg Friedrich Daumer’s *Polydora*.

These supple settings—at times capricious and coquettish, at times melancholic, and at times passionate—enjoyed tremendous success—not least because, despite their adherence to the waltz rhythm, the pieces offer an inexhaustible wealth of catchy melodies.

It was not love, but inner contemplation in the face of the immensity of the cosmos that Hans Werner Henze placed at the center of his calm, floating *Notturno* for wind instruments, double bass, and piano: an instrumentally reimagined variation on the conclusion of the second scene, “Moon and Stars,” from Henze’s opera *Die englische Katze*. The concert then continues with *Musen Siziliens* (Muses of Sicily), set in the idyllic pastoral world of Virgil’s *Bucolics*.

In this three-part work with its unusual instrumentation, Henze deliberately sought to “move away from the sound of the large orchestra, from polyphony and dodecaphony. […] In *Muses of Sicily*, I wanted […] to focus on very simple phrases, to circle around individual notes, and to rotate around tonal centers. It was meant to be fun to sing, […] and the interplay of the two solo pianos was meant to be fun to play and enjoyable to listen to.” With its transparent instrumentation, the three-part work features a dance-like pastorale followed by a contemplative adagio and a playful vivace, with the choral setting characterized throughout by melodic inventiveness and expressive tonal beauty.