Ettore Pagano & Maximilian Kromer

The Rome-born cellist Ettore Pagano has caused a sensation at numerous international competitions in recent years: he not only won first prize and several special prizes at the International Khachaturian Competition in Armenia, but is also first prize winner of the International Johannes Brahms Competition and the "Anna-Kull" cello competition, among many other awards. It is therefore fitting that for his debut at the Brucknerhaus he has brought along Johannes Brahms' moving second sonata for cello, which he wrote for the composer Robert Hausmann, one of the greatest cellists of his time. Two compositions from the 20th and 21st centuries form the antithesis to Brahms: the Toccata by Florence-born Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, written four years before fascist racial legislation in Italy forced the composer into exile in America in 1939, and excerpts from "The Roots (A Tale Sonata)" by Ezio Bosso from 2018.