From the Alte Nationalgalerie a 200 bus took me quickly and directly from Lustgarten to the Philharmonie, for the free Tuesday lunchtime concert, at 1:00pm. It’s a popular event, and even at 12:30 when I arrived the huge foyer was crowded. I went upstairs and managed to find a space by the rail, almost behind the temporary stage.
The concert was given by two young families: parents Walter Küssner, (viola), Noriko Küssner (piano) and Ulrich Knörzer (viola); and their very accomplished children Elena Küssner, 11 (violin), Jubal Küssner, 13 (viola), Leon Küssner, 8 (cello), and Charlotte Knörzer, 10 (piano). They looked younger than their years. Watch for their names in the coming decade.
The programme, announced and generally managed by Walter Küssner, opened with the Pachelbel canon in D major, and included string works by Kabalewski, Bernhard Romberg, Max Bruch, Clementi and Cornelius Gurlitt. The two fathers played Frank Bridge’s ‘Lament for Two Violas’, and 11-year-old Elena played a remarkable Caprice, opus 24, by Pablo de Sarasate. It ended with one of Frank Bridge’s Miniatures for Piano Trio, ‘Saltarello’. All very enjoyable, and much appreciated by the scattered audience.
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