Maintz, Rohde, Honda Rosenberg, Dahl

In 2019, the Ljubljana Festival launched its first masterclasses for both international and Slovenian students, marking a significant expansion into the field of education for young musicians. Since then, acclaimed performers and educators from some of Europe’s most prestigious music institutions have returned to Ljubljana each year. Among them are cellist Jens-Peter Maintz (Berlin and Madrid), violist Hartmut Rohde (Berlin and London), violinist Latica Honda Rosenberg (Berlin), bassoonist Ole Kristian Dahl (Mannheim), and pianists Evgeny Sinaiski (Vienna), Ken Nakasako (Berlin), Naoko Sonoda (Berlin and Weimar), and Rie Shimada (Mannheim and Frankfurt).

This year’s Masterclass Concert Series opens with César Franck’s romantic Cello Sonata, followed by Kalebasse auf dem Handfächer, a new work by German-Iranian composer Sarvenaz Safari, written especially for Rohde and Maintz. Next are Robert Schumann’s Fantasiestücke for bassoon and piano, and the first half of the concert concludes with Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s suite Much Ado About Nothing, drawn from his incidental music for Shakespeare’s comedy.

After the interval, the programme continues with one of Benjamin Britten’s more introspective chamber works: Lachrymae, a set of variations on a theme by Renaissance composer John Dowland. The concert concludes with the Serenade for String Trio by Ernst von Dohnányi – a piece rich in modal colour and deeply influenced by the contrapuntal writing of Johannes Brahms.