On Friday, 17 May 2019, Pieter Wispelwey and Paolo Giacometti received the Brahms-Preis 2019 in an award ceremony during which the duo performed Schubert's Arpeggione Sonata and Brahms' Sonata in F major.
The Brahmspreis has been awarded by the Brahms-Gesellschaft Schleswig-Holstein, founded by Yehudi Menuhin and Justus Frantz, since 1988 and honours artists who have rendered outstanding contributions to Brahms' legacy. Laureates have included Leonard Bernstein and the Wiener Philharmoniker, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Simone Young and, in recent years, Christiane Karg, Herbert Blomstedt and Christoph Eschenbach. A full list of previous recipients can be found here.
Already in the 1990s, Wispelwey's recordings of Brahms' sonatas broke with hitherto known conventions and sparked a vivid debate among critics and audiencences about how to interpret Brahms' music. As part of their venture to interpret Brahms' works in the context of Schubert's writing, Wispelwey and Giacometti have recorded the composers' complete duo works. The fifth and final instalment of this Schubert-Brahms pilgrimage was released by Evil Penguin Records Classic ealier this month. You can watch the two artists reminisce about this journey here, or go straight to the full album.
Photo: Andreas Guballa
