34 artists, 6 days, 1 festival

The musical diversity of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Europe

This year’s festival focuses on the artistic achievements of composers whose relationships were tense even in their lifetimes. Whether Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt, Sergey Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich, or Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms: the juxtaposition of the composers’ works gives vivid, audible form to both common ground and contradiction.

Each concert addresses the musical culture of one country, presenting its composers and their works. Two evenings are devoted to the Russian composers of Romanticism and modernism: from Mikhail Glinka, considered the father of Russian music, to Peter Tchaikovsky and Sergey Rachmaninov, to the protagonists of musical modernism Sergey Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich.

The festival’s second day offers a matinee of French chamber music that ranges from César Franck’s Piano Quintet, via Gabriel Fauré’s Second Piano Quartet, to works by Claude Debussy, Paul Dukas, and Francis Poulenc.

This year’s festival also includes the composers of German Romanticism, such as Robert Schumann, whose lieder and chamber music pieces were a source of inspiration for many other composers—examples in the later nineteenth century being Johannes Brahms and Max Bruch, or in the more recent past György Kurtág, the creator of an impressive Hommage à Schumann. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Frédéric Chopin, and Franz Liszt, all of whom left lasting marks on European musical life, also have their place in the program.

World premiere

As in previous years, contemporary music is also represented. This year, the festival awarded the commission for an original piece to the Düsseldorf composer Sven-Ingo Koch. His work for clarinet and strings will celebrate its world premiere on the fourth evening of the festival.

intonations – The Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival

The Jerusalem Chamber Music Festival was founded by Elena Bashkirova in 1998, and is among the most important events in Israeli musical life. As a festival gathering together top international musicians, it forms a counterpoint to the conflicts and antagonisms that fracture the city of Jerusalem. The concert series has visited the Jewish Museum Berlin every year since 2012. In 2018, intonations will take place for the seventh time in the museum’s Glass Courtyard on April 21–26.

The festival is supported by Evonik Industries.

The current program and trailer for the chamber music festival can be found at jmberlin.de/en/intonations (schedule subject to change).

To arrange an interview with the festival director Elena Bashkirova or selected artists, please contact presse@jmberlin.de.

Media partners

• Deutschlandradio Kultur
• rbb Fernsehen
• rbb Kulturradio
• tip Berlin
• TheaterGemeinde Berlin e.V.

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jmberlin hashtag: #intonations17

Press Images

Free to use for current reporting only; a copy of any articles is requested.