Celebrations in the air: German, Italian classics resonate in capital

Thomas Weißschnur and Yukiko Tidten-Yoshikawa played music from Germany, Italian Baroque.

ISLAMABAD: Lovers of Western classical music enjoyed a concert featuring Thomas Weißschnur and Yukiko Tidten-Yoshikawa at the German embassy on Sunday night.

“The advent is a season observed to celebrate the nativity of Jesus and it is traditional to celebrate the occasion with music,” said Cyrill Nunn, the German ambassador as he welcomed guests at the embassy.

Yoshikawa on piano and Weißschnur on clarinet, opened with Schumann, the 19th century German arch-Romantic composer who portrayed a variation of evocative pieces in his musical career.



The duo then played Schumann’s Three Romances, Opus 94: moderato, semplice con sentiment and moderato. They straddled into a more diverse rhythm with Corelli’s Sonata number 12 in D minor, Opus 5-12 ‘La Folia’.

The concluding piece was dedicated to Brahms, the German composer and pianist of the Romantic period. One of Brahms’ last compositions, the Sonata for clarinet and piano No 2 in E-flat major, Opus 120-2, played allegro amabile, allegro appassionato and andante con moto – allegro.

“I really enjoyed the Corelli sonata and the final piece was a good showcase of Brahms work also, which was a dialogue between two instruments,” said an appreciative audience member.

Freiburg-born clarinetist Weißschnur is internationally active as soloist, chamber and orchestra-musician. He has performed with various orchestras and ensembles in Europe, US and Asia, including the Guarneri Trio Prague, the Amaryllis Quartet, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra, Konzerthaus Chamber Orchestra, the Macau Orchestra as well as the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble.

Weißschnur is currently based in Düsseldorf where he is on faculty at the International Music Academy Anton Rubinstein.

Yoshikawa was born in Kyoto, Japan, and has been internationally active as a concert pianist in Japan and Europe. She studied at the University of Arts, Kyoto, at the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris and at the National Superior Conservatory for Music and Dance in Lyon, France.

She received scholarships of the Nomura Foundation and the Rohm Music Foundation and has been living in Islamabad for about a year where she teaches piano music and is active as a concert pianist.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 10^th, 2014.