It happened in Vienna

The up-and-coming Brackman Piano Trio from The Hague, successful at Janine Jansen’s chamber music festival, immerses us in Vienna’s musical life around 1900. That is where it all happened. First, Arnold Schönberg first composed late-Romantic masterpieces, such as Verklärte Nacht, here performed in a version for piano trio. Then he abandoned tonality: a revolution. He inspired Anton Webern to write highly original miniatures, such as his Vier Stücke for violin and piano. They were performed in the progressive Viennese salons. At the same time, the violinist Fritz Kreisler achieved enormous success with his irresistible miniatures: nostalgic salon music in the best sense of the word. Other composers remained true to late-Romanticism, such as Zemlinsky in his overwhelmingly beautiful piano trio, and the fortunately rediscovered Joseph Marx.