BACH’S GENIUS MEETS THE EMOTIONS OF BRAHMS

The Romantic Response

THURSDAY, JANUARY 29 • 7:30 PM

St. Mark’s Lutheran Church
1001 Queens Road, Charlotte, NC 28207

Bach’s genius meets the sweeping emotions of Brahms in a program that pulses with intensity. From the intimacy of sonata to the majesty of variation, this concert reveals how one master inspired another across centuries. Expect bold virtuosity, profound lyricism, and music that speaks straight to the soul.

Musicians for "The Romantic Response"

Presented by Steinway Piano Gallery

PROGRAM

Contrapunctus 1 from The Art of Fugue
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
3'30"

Cello Sonata No. 1 in E minor, Op. 38
Johannes Brahms (1833–1897)
25'30"

Chaconne
(Partita in D minor for solo violin, BWV 1004)
JS Bach/Robert Schumann (1810–1856)
14'

Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24
Brahms
26'

Concert Duration:
Approximately 75 minutes plus intermission

MUSICIANS

Aisslinn Nosky, Violin
Guy Fishman, Cello
Esther Jeehae Ahn, Piano

VENUE

St. Mark’s Lutheran Church
1001 Queens Road, Charlotte, NC 28207

Parking:
Park in the parking lot next to the church, or park in the parking lot on the other side of Queens Road from the church.

St. Mark's Lutheran Church interior, taken from the balcony during the 2025 Charlotte Bach Festival

TICKETS
Premium Preferred Seating: $70
General Admission: $45
18–30 (for adults ages 18–30): $15
Under 18 (for children under the age of 18): Free

Ticket price does not include 7.25% local sales tax. Credit card fees are optional for all ticket purchasers.

GO DEEPER

Brahms Looks Back at the Baroque

Johannes Brahms referred to his Cello Sonata No. 1 in E minor, Op. 38 as an “homage to J. S. Bach,” And indeed, listeners will hear that the principal theme of both the first movement and the fugue are based on Contrapunctus 4 and 13 of Bach’s The Art of Fugue.

Brahms composed the first two movements during the summer of 1862 at the age of 29, and completed the final movement in 1865. The sonata is entitled “Sonate für Klavier und Violoncello” and according to Brahms, the piano “should be a partner - often a leading, often a watchful and considerate partner - but it should under no circumstances assume a purely accompanying role.” The work is dedicated to Josef Gänsbacher, a fried of Brahms, who was a singing professor and amateur cellist. Reportedly, in the course of a private performance with Gänsbacher for a group of friends, Brahms played the piano so loudly that Gänsbacher complained he couldn’t hear his cello at all. Brahms’s response? “Lucky for you, too.”

Brahms composed the Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24 a year before he began work on his Cello Sonata. Abandoning his position as director of the Hamburg women’s choir, Brahms had moved out of his family’s apartments in Hamburg and into his own in the suburb of Hamm. The move inspired a particularly productive time for the young composer.

Though in decline at the time, the variation as a musical form held great interest for Brahms, and he had been emulating Baroque models from as early as 1855. For Brahms, the bass line was the critical component of a variation. He wrote, “In a theme for a [set of] variations, it is almost only the bass that has any meaning for me. But this is sacred to me, it is the firm foundation on which I then build my stories. What I do with a melody is only playing around.”

For the theme of the Handel Variations, Brahms used an aria in the third movement of Handel’s Harpsichord Suite No. 1 in B Flat Major, HWV 434 (Suites de pièces pour le clavecin, published in 1733 with five variations). Brahms himself owned a First Edition copy.

Johannes Brahms in 1860