Dear friend: Brahms, Herzogenberg and Röntgen

Read reviews

In 1874, Heinrich von Herzogenberg (1843-1900) hosted a Brahms festival in Leipzig, where the two men became friends. Brahms (1833-1897) also met Julius Röntgen (1855-1932) there. Subsequently, the three men rubbed shoulders in what became known as the Brahms circle.

Brahms was a central figure in this professional and friendly network, from which he benefited in many ways. Between 1874 and 1892, he sent almost all his manuscripts to Elisabeth von Herzogenberg (1847-1892), his former piano pupil who married Heinrich von Herzogenberg. He took her advice most readily, along with that of the pianist and composer Clara Schumann, another leading figure in the circle. The group’s meetings allowed Brahms to try out works before they were premiered or published. In addition, Elisabeth von Herzogenberg’s exceptional memory and talent as a pianist enabled her to perform unpublished pieces she had heard, thus promoting their diffusion. This network was essential to Brahms’s recognition, but its role is little known as its members, dominated by ideas of genius and inspiration, blotted out the traces of their help to let their idol shine alone. [..]

With this programme, Isabel Gehweiler and Fiona Hengartner shed light on the circle that played a decisive role in bringing Brahms into the repertoire but also produced other top-quality composers who had unjustly fallen into oblivion. Let us not forget that Joachim placed the works of Heinrich von Herzogenberg just after those of Brahms and believed that Röntgen could become one of the great masters in the history of music.

Delphine Vincent 
Translation: Michelle Bulloch – Musitext

[Read more in the booklet]

Isabel Gehweiler

The cellist Isabel Gehweiler first attracted international attention when in 2007, at the age of 19, she won the European Bursary for Young Artists.

From 2016 to 2021 Isabel Gehweiler was a lecturer in cello at the University of Music, Drama and Media in Hanover. Since 2017 she has been teaching a cello class at the College of Music in Einsiedeln (in the Swiss canton of Schwyz), and since 2019 she has additionally held a lectureship in didactics and improvisation at the Zurich University of the Arts. She specialises in transdisciplinary projects and regularly works with internationally acknowledged artists such as the director Christoph Marthaler and the pop star Andreas Vollenweider.

Her teachers included Katharina Gohl-Moser and Ivan Monighetti (both at the Basel Musikhochschule in the pre-college phase), Richard Aaron (The Juilliard School, New York – Bachelor of Music), Gustav Rivinius (Musikhochschule Saarbrücken – orchestra diploma) and Thomas Grossenbacher (Zurich University of the Arts – Master of Arts Soloist and Master of Arts Music Education).

Isabel Gehweiler is a prizewinner of the European Bursary for Young Artists, the Art Prize of the Art Foundation of Baden-Württemberg, the Art Prize of the Markgräfler region; she is also a recipient of grants from the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service), the Juilliard School of Music, the Rotary Foundation, the arteMusica Foundation, the Cultural Foundation of the Saarland region, the Richard Wagner Association, the Covid-19 Grant of the City of Zurich, the Notenstein La Roche Privatbank and the Vontobel Bank.

As a composer Isabel Gehweiler has produced a body of work encompassing chamber music and orchestral compositions, which are regularly performed at international festivals.

www.isabelgehweiler.com

Fiona Hengartner

Fiona Hengartner is a Swiss pianist who is active as a concert pianist, experienced chamber musician and orchestral pianist. In addition, she teaches a piano class and is a rehearsal pianist at the conservatoire in Fribourg (Switzerland).

Fiona Hengartner studied piano at the conservatoire in Fribourg with Francois Beffa and at the Haute École de Musique de Lausanne with Christian Favre. She attained a second Masters degree in interpretation at the Zurich University of the Arts with special emphasis on chamber music and Lieder as well as a Certificate of Advanced Studies (Piano Performance) in Christoph Berner’s class.

She has won many prizes at competitions, including the Longines Prize in the finale of the 5th National Competition at the Jura Festival, first prize at the International Piano Competition in Fribourg and the prize for interpretation of the compulsory piece. At the finale of the Swiss Youth Music Competition she twice received first prize, alongside the Astona Prize. She is the recipient of a number of grants including that of the Fonds Pierre et Renée Glasson, the Fondation Casino Barrière de Montreux pour le Talent et la Créativité, the Swiss Richard Wagner Society, the Vincent Merkle Foundation and the Rotary Club’s Elsner Prize.

In 2021 as a member of the Essor Quartet she released her CD „Music for 4 Musicians” featuring works for two pianos and two percussions. She is also the duo partner of cellist Isabel Gehweiler and the two performers give concerts that concentrate on diversified repertoire, combining different art forms and the works of forgotten composers. In 2024, their first CD „Notre amour” is released on the German label Solo Musica, featuring a selection of works by Swiss and French composers. This programme resonates with the emotions associated with love in all its diversity, whether romantic, friendly, familial, unconditional or spiritual.

www.fionahengartner.ch 

REVIEWS

Kultur Abdruck

"Jahrzehntelang interessierte sich die Musikwelt nur für den Namensgeber des sogenannten „Brahms-Kreises“, der in erster Linie vom Bemühen seiner hochbegabten Zeitgenossen um musikalische Perfektionierung profitiert hatte. Die Cellistin Isabel Gehweiler und die Pianistin Fiona Hengartner entdecken nun aber auch im Umfeld des Verehrten großartige Werke." - October 2024

La Liberté

« Ce ne sont pas des noms qu’on voit souvent sur les affiches de concert ou les pochettes de disque. La pianiste Fiona Hengartner et la violoncelliste Isabel Gehweiler en donnent sur un nouvel enregistrement Claves une des rares lectures. Julius Röntgen et Heinrich von Herzogenberg ont pourtant fait partie du cercle musical de Johannes Brahms, dont elles interprètent également une sonate. Intitulé Lieber Freund… ce disque est déjà le troisième de la pianiste fribourgeoise et un témoignage d’amitié à plusieurs titres. Interview. [..] » - Elisabeth Hass, septembre 2024

OpusKlassiek

"[..] These are subtle interpretations filled with expressive power, beautiful in tone and free of sentimentality. It is a fairly tight performance, as we see with more musicians from the younger generation: no overly emphatic display of their own abilities, no excessive romanticizing, nuanced and eloquent. The fact that more profound performances can be found in the top segment of the discography does not detract from this beautifully stylized duo performance." - Aart van der Wal, March 2025

Austa - Stringendo

“This is a comparison review of two CDs of Romantic sonatas for piano and cello. They have much in common, which is why I’ve chosen to discuss them together, but also great differences. For brevity I’ll refer to them as ‘Weilerstein’ and ‘Gehweiler’, absolutely not diminishing the excellent work of both pianists! [..] Gehweiler adds sonatas by Julius Röntgen and Heinrich von Herzogenberg, both as Brahmsian as you can get without actually being Brahms. The four concise movements of Röntgen’s sonata op. 56 are particularly attractive: worth enjoying both as a listener and a performer. [..] If too much Brahms is never enough, Weilerstein will fit the bill, but for sheer beauty and sensitive emotional response, I can’t go past Gehweiler’s performance.” - Michael O’Loghlin, June 2025