The second evening of the Allegra Festival leads us into the heart of Romanticism, where the spring euphoria of Robert Schumann meets the autumnal wisdom of Johannes Brahms. It is an encounter between two spiritual kindred souls – Schumann, who recognised in the young Brahms “the one who was meant to come,” and Brahms, who carried his mentor’s aesthetic throughout his life.

The evening opens with the Piano Quartet in E-flat major, Op. 47 – a work from Schumann’s happy, luminous year of 1842. Within it coexist his two inner voices: the rebellious Florestan and the dreamy Eusebius. The piano, dedicated to Clara, leads an intimate dialogue with the strings, while the third movement – Andante cantabile – sounds like a pure declaration of love. The mystical resonance of the retuned cello string holds the music’s breath before it bursts into a radiant finale.

Next comes Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115 – a work born in his late autumn, when the composer already felt spent. Yet his encounter with clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld ignited a new spark of inspiration. The music is bathed in amber warmth, and in the second movement the clarinet recalls the gypsy bands of Brahms’s youth. The variations of the final movement unfold five inner worlds, and the ending returns to the opening theme – not as a conclusion, but as a homecoming.

To bring these masterpieces to life, Allegra gathers an ensemble of virtuosos. Jacques Ammon leads the quartet with refinement, Fabio Di Càsola brings the warmth of Brahms’s clarinet, and Valeriy Sokolov provides the intellectual depth of the strings. He is joined by Stoimen Peev, whose presence adds stability and energy. Lech Ushinsky and Eckart Runge form the dense, warm foundation that reveals the deep emotional layers of both works.

These compositions teach us to live with our contradictions: rebellion and calm, passion and humility, zenith and sunset. In them, life does not fade – it pulses until the final note, like an intimate diary of two great creators who have ceased to fight fate and have begun to praise it.