Linos Festival 1: Songs

Songs are the most ancient known form of music making. As far we know, they have always existed. Folk songs and lullabies have been around for centuries and the only thing we know about their survival is that they continue to be passed down along generations. So what happens when they are passed on? To whom do they belong? We explore this in our opening concert through folk songs and works by Farzia Fallah and Schubert.

You can read the full festival programme here.

Programme

Johannes Brahms – Lullaby
                                        Piano Trio in C Minor op. 101, iii. Andante grazioso
Linos Piano Trio

Ture Rangström – Bön till natten
                                    Pan
Herdís Anna & Prach

Farzia Fallah – Lalayi II (2017) a Lullaby for Sohrab
Konrad, Simone & Vladimir

Wilhelm Peterson-Berger – Two songs from "Four songs in the Swedish folk style"
Isak Albert Berg – Se solen sjunker
Herdís Anna & Prach

Franz Schubert – Piano Trio in E-flat major, op. 100, ii. Andante con moto
Prach, Konrad & Vladimir

Franz Schubert – Der Lindenbaum
Herdís Anna & Prach

About the festival

The Linos Festival is back and the theme this year is Stolen Music. The Linos Piano Trio explores this concept, derived from their transcriptions project, with the scintillating choice of music which has come to be expected from them. Alongside their guests this year Herdís Anna Jónasdóttir (soprano) and Simone von Rahden (née Jandl - viola), they will navigate a colourful programme of chamber music standards, orchestral works, new music and more, including selected works from the trio’s second studio album “Stolen Music”, which will appear this summer, released by CAvi music and the Bayerischer Rundfunk. The Linos Festival is the only chamber music festival of its kind in Cologne and was founded by the trio in 2019. It is an expression of the musicians’ artistic vision: to expand the borders of classical chamber music as we know and experience it.

Linos Piano Trio –  Artistic direction

The Linos Piano Trio brings together the members’ five nationalities and three musical voices into the single artistic vision of “reinventing the repertoire”. Pushing at the boundaries of the trio genre, Linos has, since its inception in 2007, championed hidden gems and created new trio transcriptions, alongside its fresh, personal and visceral performances of the core repertoire. 

Praised for its “slow-burning, gripping performance” by The Strad, and “virtuosity, presence of mind, and wit” by Süddeutsche Zeitung, the Linos Piano Trio’s reputation has taken it to prestigious stages and festivals internationally. With its pioneering spirit, the trio recorded the first complete recording of C.P.E. Bach’s Piano Trios (CAvi-music, 2020) which received several five-star reviews from across the European press.

Of the ensemble’s numerous awards and affiliations, the Linos Piano Trio was the First Prize and Audience Prize winner of the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition 2015, the 2014 winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Albert and Eugenie Frost Prize, and since 2017 holds the position of Carne Ensemble-in-Residence at Trinity Laban Conservatoire.

Linos (Λῖνος), in Greek mythology, was a son of Apollo. He received from his father the three-stringed lute, and became known as the inventor of new melodies, lyric songs, and eloquent speech. He was the teacher of Heracles and his brother Orpheus.

Herdís Anna Jónasdóttir – Soprano

Herdís has taken part in various theater productions in Iceland, Germany and Switzerland. For her performance as Violetta Valery with the Icelandic Opera she received the Icelandic Theater Award, “Gríman”, as singer of the year. Herdís has given solo recitals in Iceland and in Germany and also been very active on the concert stage, performing with e.g. at the Carl Orff Festival, with The Reykjavik Chamber Orchestra, The Faroese Symphony Orchestra, The Saarland State Orchestra, the Canberra Symphony Orchestra in Australia and The Icelandic Symphony Orchestra. After her studies, Herdís spent time at the International Opera Studio at the Opera in Zürich and was engaged as a soloist at the Saarland State Theatre in Saarbrücken, Germany in 2013-2018. Born in Ísafjörður, Iceland she studied piano, violin and singing from an early age. In 2003 she continued her music studies, majoring in singing at the Iceland Academy of the Arts in Reykjavik and graduated with a B.Mus. degree in 2006. Herdís continued her studies at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin where she graduated with a diploma and a Konzertexamen degree.

Simone von Rahden (née Jandl) – Viola

Violist Simone von Rahden has established herself as an internationally in-demand violist. She has toured the world with chamber music partners such as Sir András Schiff, Antoine Tamestit, and Tabea Zimmermann and has given solo performances with the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln. She is a member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Spira mirabilis project, and regularly plays with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. Simone has been Principal Viola of the Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona and has been guest Principal with the Philharmonia Orchestra London and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. Historically informed performance also part of her repertoire, Simone is currently Principal Viola of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Most recently, she has taken teaching positions at both Hochschule für Musik „Hanns Eisler“ in Berlin and at Hochschule für Musik und Theater Rostock.