Listen to diversity

Warm timber surrounds a group of young musicians in the beautiful concert hall of the Bern Conservatory. It is the award ceremony of the Orpheus Swiss Chamber Music Competition in November 2024: Italian violinist Sofia de Falco, Swiss cellist Axelle Richez and pianist Rocco Michela, who grew up in Valais, triumph as the Dora Piano Trio. While some people are still wondering what ‘Dora’ is all about, others are particularly pleased as they have long been aware of the outstanding works by female composers from the history of music that are still hidden from many.

Some of these were written by the Croatian-Hungarian composer Dora Pejačević (1885-1923), who gave the Dora Piano Trio its name and became a figure of identification. The trio members emphasise that they have felt drawn to Pejačević's music ever since they started playing together and fell in love with the Piano Trio in C major in particular.

A short, intense life
Pejačević is a celebrity in Croatia. Until recently, she remained hidden from classical music lovers here, although she was highly successful during her lifetime. Her Symphony in F sharp minor was premiered in 1918 in the Musikverein's Golden Hall in Vienna. As a person, she must have been incredibly inspiring and was in close contact with Rainer Maria Rilke, Karl Kraus and the pacifist Annette Kolb.

Pejačević came from a noble family, her father was briefly Viceroy of Croatia and her mother was a Hungarian baroness, pianist and singer. It therefore goes without saying that she received the best possible education. She read the world literature in the family library in the original and spoke Croatian, English, German, Hungarian, French and Italian. She studied composition in Dresden and Munich and in 1921, after a long period of disinterest in marriage, eventually married. This was a mistake. After complications during the birth of her first son, Pejačević died at the age of 37.

Commitment to female composers
What remains of Pejačević are piano and chamber music works, songs and a symphony, which have slowly become known to a wider audience in recent years. Her works - sometimes compared to the music of Rachmaninov - breathe the spirit of the fin-de-siècle, full of beauty, emotion and love. The triumph of the Dora Piano Trio at the Orpheus Competition is therefore a double stroke of luck, both for the musicians and for the Ernen music audience: this will be the very first time that a piece by Pejačević is performed in the Musikdorf.

Not for the first time, but to a special extent, another outstanding composer will be present at the Newcomers Weekend: Cheryl Frances-Hoad (read a detailed portrait of the British composer here). The Dora Piano Trio, the Moser String Quartet and the Duo Linnik / Vlček all have chosen to perform one of her works. This shows how accessible her colourful and expressive music is for musicians and audiences alike.

Programmes full of curiosity
Denis Linnik (piano) and Vilém Vlček (cello) were immediately enthusiastic about Cheryl Frances-Hoad's piece "The Prophecy". It is the very first professionally commissioned composition by the then 17-year-old composer and, with youthful expressiveness, thematises human irrationality in the face of death - and quotes the "Dies Irae". Linnik and Vlček are a well-established duo who recently completed the complete recording of Bohuslav Martinů's music for cello and piano. They round off their programme with Janáček, Martinů and Grieg.

In addition to the Wendel Quartet, a piano quartet that excelled at the Orpheus Competition, the Spanish pianist Laura Mota Pello will also be making her debut at the Newcomers Weekend. She was recently awarded the Encouragement Prize at the Concours Géza Anda. Inspired by the festival's theme of ‘Rituals’, she will perform farewell music by Bach and Beethoven, Franz Liszt's impressive paraphrase of the "Miserere" from Giuseppe Verdis "Il trovatore" and folk-inspired music from her homeland by Isaac Albéniz and Manuel de Falla.

Newcomers | 12–14 September 2025 | The next generation
4 chamber concerts and a piano recital

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Written in December 2024, by Jonathan Inniger