IKFU Openingsconcert 2024

The International Chamber Music Festival Utrecht, as always, ends the opening day with an exclamation mark, a promise for the rest of the festival. Violinist and artistic director Janine Jansen has once again gathered a selection of brilliant chamber musician friends around her to transform the Grote Zaal of TivoliVredenburg into one big living room with the Piano Trio Op. 8 by Brahms and Enescu’s famous Octet .

Johannes Brahms wrote his First Piano Trio in 1854, shortly after he had first met Robert and Clara Schumann. That meeting gave his career a boost. The confidence that emanates from the first movement undoubtedly has something to do with that. Yet Brahms was not entirely satisfied. Much later, in 1889, he revised the work considerably. It is this version of a youthful work through the eyes and ears of a seasoned composer that is performed most often.

George Enescu’s Octet is considered one of the greatest chamber music works for strings after Mendelssohn’s Octet . The compelling work from 1900 captures the spirit of the times without saying goodbye to romanticism and is a true feast for both the musicians and the audience. For Janine Jansen and her music friends, a work like this is exactly what the festival is all about: enchanting each other and the listeners with music of the highest order.