"Brahms - Liszt, the musical dispute of the 19th century"

Great piano music of the 19th century is on the program of this special concert evening with pianist and recitalist Christoph Soldan. The two protagonists Brahms and Liszt are representative of very different aesthetic and musical concepts. Liszt mostly composed according to literary models. He, the creator of the symphonic poem, dedicated himself to what we generally call program music. Brahms, on the other hand, saw himself in the tradition of Beethoven and preferred to understand music as absolute music. Christoph Soldan will demonstrate that we today regard both composers as creators of ingenious music, using Brahms' Handel Variations and Liszt's "Années de pèlerinage" as examples. He will explain the program and introduce the works and composers to his audience.

Johannes Brahms: Variations on a Theme by Handel op. 24
Franz Liszt: from "Années de pèlerinage" (Years of Pilgrimage)