Brahms: Old Soul, Young at Heart

Lancaster Arts is truly delighted to welcome violinist, Jenna Sherry and pianist, Dániel Lőwenberg, to the Great Hall for the first time, fresh from recording these rarely heard violin and piano versions of the sonatas. This is a programme that ranges from music of experience and wisdom to expression that is truly young at heart: yearning songs, feather-light melodies, Viennese waltzes, and galloping fanfares.

Jenna Sherry, violin
Dániel Lőwenberg, piano

Schubert: Sonata D. 385 in A minor
Brahms: Sonata in E-flat Op. 120 no. 2
Brahms: Vier ernste gesange Op. 121 no. 2 "Ich wandte mich", Wie Melodien zieht es mir Op. 105 no. 1, & Lerchengesang Op. 70 no. 2
Bach: "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden"
Brahms: Sonata in F minor Op. 120 no. 1

In this programme, the ardent sensuality of Brahms's chamber music and the distilled wisdom of the composer's late works meet in two extraordinary sonatas originally imagined for clarinet – but recently rediscovered in a version for violin. Few people know that Brahms's beloved Op. 120 Sonatas were originally published for violin and piano alongside the more famous versions for clarinet and viola. The performers complete the program with a selection of songs and works by Schubert and Bach that reflect Brahms's spiritual influences, musical fascinations, and earthly inspirations.

From the rich musical atmospheres of New Orleans and Budapest respectively, Sherry and Lőwenberg first met and began collaborating at the International Musicians Seminar Prussia Cove, the chamber music festival that Hungarian violinist and conductor Sándor Végh founded in Cornwall. Their collaboration is rooted in a shared passion for discovering old works with fresh ears and an unbridled joy in the process of making and sharing music.

Dániel Lőwenberg is a pianist whose warmth and depth of tone is ideally suited to Brahms and the emotional nuances of fin de siècle Austro-Hungarian music. In the New Orleans violinist Jenna Sherry, now based in London, he has a sensitive partner to share the journey. She advocates the music commandingly, its rise and fall blooming naturally, her vibrato expressively tasteful and restrained.



…persuasively, sensually championed. Gorgeous.

(International Piano magazine Jan/Feb 2021, Ateş Orga)