Pre-CBSO Piano Showcase: An Evening of Brahms

Pre-CBSO Piano Showcase: An evening of Brahms

Brahms Piano Pieces Op.118, Nos 1, 2 and 3
Ruowen Hao piano

Brahms Four Serious Songs Op.121
Matthew Pandya (pictured) baritone
Bianca Vancea piano

Brahms's German Requiem, which follows at 7.30pm, was written in the 1860s after the death of Brahms's mother, and his Four Serious Songs, completed in 1896 at the time of Clara Schumann's stroke, turn again to death and Biblical themes. The fourth and final song concludes with some of the most moving valedictory music ever penned, setting as it does Corinthians: "And now abideth faith, hope and love, these three; but the greatest of these is love."