Cyprus Symphony Orchestra – Chamber Music 1 – Piano Quartet, Brahms & Mahler – 2.10.2025

CYPRUS SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA – Chamber Music 1 – PIANO QUARTET – Brahms & Mahler

Lemesos: Thursday 2 October 2025 – Rialto Theatre, 20:00

Johannes Brahms: Piano quartet no. 3 in C minor, op. 60

Gustav Mahler: Piano quartet in A minor

Ayşe Karaoğlan violin

Vladimir Tkachenko viola

Pinar Bayraktar cello

Manolis Neophytou piano

The distinguished CySO violinist Ayşe Karaoğlan and cellist Pinar Bayraktar, long-standing chamber music partners, are now turning their artistic curiosity towards the piano quartet repertoire. To embark on this new journey, they join forces with two exceptional musicians: CySO’s sub-principal violist Vladimir Tkachenko and the brilliant Cypriot pianist Manolis Neophytou.

Sharing a deep love for Brahms, their programme starts with his Piano quartet no. 3 in C minor composed in 1875 — a piece with a fascinating connection to the composer’s life. Brahms famously described it with dark emotional imagery, writing to his publisher: “Imagine a man who is about to shoot himself because nothing else remains to him.” This vivid sentiment reflects the quartet’s turbulent emotional landscape – rooted in Brahms’ deep inner conflict between pain for the mental illness of his friend Robert Schumann and his own love for his wife, Clara Schumann.

Just one year later, in 1876, the 15 year-old Gustav Mahler, then student at Vienna Conservatory, composed his Piano quartet in A minor. There is a foreboding darkness and intensity of emotion in this very early work, whereby one can hear echoes of the music of Schumann and Brahms.

Supporters: Rialto Theatre

Ticket price: €12 / €7 (concession)

Ticket presales:

Rialto Theatre (Andrea Drousioti 19, Heroes Square, 3040 Lemesos, 77777745):

Online at www.rialto.com.cy, at the Box Office, Mon-Fri: 10:00-15:00 and 1 hr before the concert.

Pallas Theatre, Pafos Gate (Rigainis and Arsinois corner, 1010 Lefkosia, 22 410181):

Online at cyso.interticket.com and 1,5 hrs before the concert.

Information: 22 463144, www.cyso.org.cy

For more information you may contact Constantia Elia at 22 463135,

email: [email protected]