Piano quartet to performs in Nicosia, Limassol

The season’s classical music concerts are upon us, many of which reflect the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra’s efforts to keep the spirit alive and theatres full. For its next concert series, it has invited four musicians to share the stage and bring to life masterpieces by Johannes Brahms and Gustav Mahler.

The Chamber Music 1 concerts present a piano quartet in front of Nicosia and Limassol audiences. First, the musicians will step onto the stage of Rialto Theatre on October 2 before returning to Pallas Theatre in Nicosia – the Orchestra’s base.

Bringing Brahms’ and Mahler’s pieces to life will be violinist Ayşe Karaoğlan, viola player Vladimir Tkachenko, cellist Pinar Bayraktar and pianist Manolis Neophytou.

“Sharing a deep love for Brahms, their programme starts with his Piano Quartet No. 3 in C minor, composed in 1875 — a piece with a fascinating connection to the composer’s life,” the orchestra says, “Brahms famously described it with dark emotional imagery, writing to his publisher: ‘Imagine a man who is about to shoot himself because nothing else remains to him.’ This vivid sentiment reflects the quartet’s turbulent emotional landscape – rooted in Brahms’ deep inner conflict between pain for the mental illness of his friend Robert Schumann and his own love for his wife, Clara Schumann.

“Just one year later, in 1876, the 15-year-old Gustav Mahler, then a student at the Vienna Conservatory, composed his Piano Quartet in A minor. There is a foreboding darkness and intensity of emotion in this very early work, whereby one can hear echoes of the music of Schumann and Brahms.”

Chamber Music 1 Piano Quartet

Cyprus Symphony Orchestra concert with violinist Ayşe Karaoğlan, viola player Vladimir Tkachenko, cellist Pinar Bayraktar and pianist Manolis Neophytou. October 2. Rialto Theatre, Limassol. October 3. Pallas Theatre, Nicosia. 8pm. €12. Tel: 22-463144, www.cyso.org.cy