Welcome Concert 2025

Caleb Borick, first prize winner of the 2023 Telekom Beethoven Competition, returns to Bonn  – not as a contestant, but as a soloist. With a thoughtfully crafted solo program that moves between romantic introspection, classical clarity, and visionary imagination, the young American pianist opens the Telekom Beethoven Competition 2025.

The evening begins with Johannes Brahms – specifically, with his Three Intermezzi, Op. 117, late piano works that the composer once described as “lullabies of my sorrow.” Here, Brahms reveals himself not as a grand symphonic architect but as a quiet, inward-looking soul – someone who no longer seeks affirmation in music, but rather solace, memory, and gentle closure. The three pieces in E-flat major, B minor, and C-sharp minor form a soft triptych of introspection – imbued with a calm, mature sensitivity that has no need to prove anything. Their melodies unfold with delicate grace, more like a breath or a trace – suggestive rather than declarative.

Clara Schumann’s rarely performed Romance in A minor, WoO 28, slips effortlessly into this sound world. A brief, tender character piece, its subtlety was long overlooked – overshadowed by the historical sidelining of women in composition. Today, it emerges as a precious expression of a musical voice attuned to nuance, harmonic shading, and phrasing that often feels as if it’s singing. In this Romance, we encounter not only Clara Schumann’s artistic seriousness, but also a poetics of restraint – an aesthetic that consciously sets itself apart from the opulent textures favored by many of her contemporaries.

With Beethoven’s Sonata No. 24 in F-sharp major, Op. 78 – dedicated to Thérèse von Brunsvik – Borick turns to the competition’s namesake, choosing a work that stands out for its elegance and brevity. Just two movements, no dramatic turning point, no heroic rhetoric: instead, a sonata of intimate grace, more conversation than proclamation, more gesture than monument. The dedication lends a personal tone; this is music not for grand occasions, but for shared moments and quiet reflection. Precisely in its sparseness, the piece opens up a rich space for expressive detail – showing Beethoven’s mastery of saying much with little.

The program concludes with Franz Schubert’s Wanderer Fantasy in C major, D 760 – a work of volcanic intensity, radical structure, and existential depth. Through-composed, its four movements are woven together in seamless transformation, as if constantly in flux rather than unfolding toward a destination. “Wandering” here becomes metaphor: for searching, for self, for sound. The central motif is drawn from Schubert’s own song Der Wanderer, but in the fantasy, it is fragmented, expanded, and propelled into virtuosic heights – always in motion, never quite at rest. Where Beethoven marched forward, Schubert drifts – his music a fleeting shadow that cannot settle.

As tradition holds, the Welcome Concert opens the Telekom Beethoven Competition. Alongside the musical program, the participants of this year’s edition are introduced. Former prizewinners offer personal insights and practical advice – making the evening a space of encounter, exchange, and artistic inspiration.