Memories - May 27, 2026 - 7:30 pm

The program of this piano recital is a finely spun network of four centuries of music - nothing exists on its own, each piece of music reacts to other music from the past or present. This is particularly evident in the Ciaccona by the Swiss composer Rudolf Lutz, who became world-famous as the conductor of the J.S. Bach Foundation, who has absorbed Johann Sebastian Bach's probably most famous violin work, the Chaconne in D minor, and creatively arranged it for piano. Musical reminiscences also often become significant in a composition when it is written in memory of a deceased person - Max Reger wrote his poignant "Resignation" on the occasion of Johannes Brahms' death, just as Paul Dukas created a memorial to the revered Claude Debussy with a work based on the flute solo from his "Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune". Many other such cross-references make this evening's program a total work of art in which music from the past and present can be experienced as a unity. Kolja Lessing is appreciated and revered worldwide as a sensitive, thoughtful and highly virtuoso musician on both the violin and the piano, not least because of his unwavering commitment to Jewish composers, some of whose treasures will also be heard in this program.