"This is probably the first time that I have looked with tenderness at what comes from me ...", Brahms wrote in a letter to his friend Hermann Deiters in June 1894, having previously confessed to his publisher Karl Simrock: "The only work whose publication I enjoy". This "single work" is by no means one of his grandiose symphonies or the comforting "German Requiem", but the collection of "German Folk Songs op. 49", his most extensive and demanding collection of folk song arrangements, published in seven volumes of seven songs each.

The intimate character of these songs is in the tradition of bourgeois domestic music, which was at its peak in Brahms' time. This origin is brought to life by the two alumni of the Heidelberger Frühling Liedakademie, soprano Theresa Pilsl and baritone Jonas Müller, accompanied by Leonard Becker on guitar. The predominantly simple accompaniment movement is usually interpreted by the piano today, but Brahms himself mentioned to his friend Philipp Spitta that he had never felt the need to "enjoy the folk songs with the piano"...

The selection of songs includes "Wie komm' ich denn zur Tür hinein", in which Brahms deliberately did not set the insinuating last verse, which asks how the cheeky visitor might get under the warm blanket. In addition, one of Brahms' best song arrangements "In stiller Nacht", whose sophisticated tension between voice and accompaniment approaches the character of the art song.

Concert without intermission