Krzysztof Michalski is a Tarnobrzeg-born Polish cellist who achieved historic success in 2024 by winning second prize at the ARD International Music Competition. The Munich contest is one of the most important events of its kind, and its prizewinners attract the attention of music lovers worldwide. At the NFM, Michalski joined by pianist Antonin Bonnet will perform masterpieces of nineteenth-century cello repertoire.

The concert will open with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Cello Sonata No. 3 in A major, Op. 69, composed around the turn of 1807 and 1808. The piece represents the artist’s mature style, harmoniously combining the Classical tradition with a foretaste of Romanticism. It features both graceful, songlike melodies and the dramatic energy so characteristic of the Fifth and Sixth Symphonies, written during the same period. The two instruments are treated as equal partners. The sonata’s opening gradually gathers momentum, developing into a thrilling succession of tension and release, followed by a Scherzo of captivating fervour. After a concise slow movement, the work culminates in an euphoric finale. Robert Schumann’s Three Romances, Op. 94 were originally written for oboe and piano. The German composer created them in December 1849, shortly before suffering a severe nervous breakdown. By then, however, he was already struggling with manic episodes. These may perhaps account for the pessimism that dominates the first and final pieces of the cycle. The second Romance provides a contrast, juxtaposing an idyllic, intimate mood with the roughness and dynamism of its central section.

“Passion reigns supreme in the Cello Sonata – at times fiery to the point of violence, at others defiantly contrary or painfully lamenting.” This is how the celebrated music critic Eduard Hanslick described Johannes Brahms’s Cello Sonata No. 2 in F major, Op. 99, which will conclude the Matinée. Its four movements were composed in the summer of 1886, during Brahms’s stay in Switzerland. This extraordinarily expressive piece would present performers with considerable difficulties. One famous anecdote concerns a cellist who had the honour of performing the piece in a duet with the composer himself. Afterward, she complained that the piano’s powerful, fiery tremolos had prevented her from hearing her own instrument. Brahms reportedly replied unceremoniously: “If so, then you should consider yourself lucky!”