Reinhold Friedrich, trumpet
Eriko Takezawa, piano

Epifanio Comis, piano

Programme:
G. Enescu: Legend for trumpet and piano
T. Takemitsu: Rain Tree Sketch II for piano solo
T. Hosokawa: In the Fog (after Hermann Hesse) for trumpet and piano 
C. Debussy: Clair de lune from Suite Bergamasque for piano
G. Gershwin, arr. T. Dokshidser/ E. H.Tarr/ R. Friedrich: Rhapsody in blue for trumpet and piano
F. Liszt: Piano Sonata in B minor, S. 178

The German trumpeter Reinhold Friedrich, a professor at the Hochschule für Musik in Karlsruhe, has been principal trumpet of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra since it was founded by Claudio Abbado. He is also the artistic director of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra Brass Ensemble. Piano accompaniment will be provided by the Japanese pianist Eriko Takezawa, who trained in Germany and teaches at the Hochschule für Musik in Karlsruhe. Friedrich is joined by the Sicilian pianist Epifanio Comis, who teaches piano at the Vincenzo Bellini Conservatory in Catania (where he himself graduated summa cum laude) and at the Accademia Pianistica Siciliana. Both musicians are the recipients of numerous prizes and have performed throughout Europe, the USA and Asia under celebrated conductors in prestigious concert venues.
Reinhold Friedrich will play a short but very demanding composition called Légende by one of Romania’s most important composers from the first half of the 20th century, George Enescu. Contemporary Japanese composing for trumpets will be presented through a composition by Toshio Hosokawa. A special place in the programme is reserved for Mysteries of the Macabre, an adaptation from the opera Le Grand Macabre by György Ligeti, written by Elgar Howarth, which is full of humour and sudden sound changes. The programme performed by Epifanio Comis will consist of the poetic composition Rain Tree by Japanese composer Tōru Takemitsu and two works from the standard repertoire for piano, the romantic and dreamy Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy and the virtuosically and brilliantly conceived Sonata in B minor by Franz Liszt.