MIT DER VIOLINE GEN OSTEN (LOOKING EASTWARD, WITH VIOLIN)

Béla Bartók was born in 1881 in Nagyszentmiklós (Great St. Nicholas), within the lands of the Habsburg Empire. Today the town of his birth is known as Sânnicolau Mare, and falls within present-day Romania. That country’s national composer is George Enescu. He studied in Vienna with Joseph Hellmesberger Jr, violinist and conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic. Now, here in what was the capital of the former multi-ethnic state, the Romanian-born, Vienna-trained pianist Catalina Butcaru appears alongside German-born Vienna Philharmonic player Volkhard Steude, performing Bartók, Enescu and Brahms. So it seems quite appropriate that the programme should also include the work of Karol Szymanowski, the “father of Polish music”, who was actually born in modern-day Ukraine.