If one were to piece together the most substantial 70 minutes of the literature for piano and wind quintet into a single program, you would be hard pressed to find a more iconic group of works. In Fun, Mockery, and Schadenfreude, Berlin Counterpoint uses the compositions of Johann Strauss and Richard Strauss to bookend a program of works that are not only milestones in their respective genres, but also extravagant, cheeky, and thoroughly idiosyncratic pieces.

Berlin Counterpoint is happy to identify itself with any one of these titles, in which a pinch of melancholy and a sprinkle of mockery are mixed with a whole lot of humor to merge into masterpieces that celebrate the joy of life.

Ligeti’s six entertaining Bagatelles, one of the shining stars of the wind quintet literature, Poulenc’s Sextuor, and of course Beethoven’s Piano Quintet are core elements of the program. These three pieces have accompanied Berlin Counterpoint from their first day together and yet continue to challenge them in every performance. They are sandwiched by two characterful arrangements that transform the great orchestral sound into a transparent, versatile and yet powerful sextet sound. Despite the lack of the typical 80-member orchestra, Till Eulenspiegel still manages to celebrate his cheeky pranks perfectly amongst these six musicians.

Richard Wagner’s Tristan Prelude marks the end of an era, while Debussy’s Prélude à l’Après-midi d’un Faune is the beginning of the era in which wind chamber music had its most important flowering. Around these two composers, this program tells a story that begins long before the birth of Mozart and is still far from finished with Connesson. Our story. The story of the composer’s confrontation with this idiosyncratic wind instrument combination, which looks unequal, is unequal, and no composer has been able to handle without a struggle.

Mozart, Thuille, and Connesson saw this struggle with inequality as a positive and because of it, not despite it, created genius pieces which later became a breeding ground for the three epochs of our ensemble literature. Mozart’s Quintet became the direct inspiration for Beethoven’s Quintet, Op. 16. Thuille’s Op. 6 is the climax of the German romanticism and was the model for Theodor Blumer and many others. And Connesson? His writing evokes so much energy and his use of the instruments is so fascinating that composers will want to follow him in droves.

Danish author Hans Christian Andersen said that music is a language that begins where words stop. How might Jules Verne have sounded if he had replaced his words with scales? To what worlds might Rimsky-Korsakov have taken us, had his vehicle been a fantasy novel instead of a piano quintet? Where pieces are no longer just language and representations, but also evoke complex structures, intimate autobiographies, and creeds – this is where our repertoire feels most at home.

The first four compositions of this program attempt to reveal the true soul of the Russian people. Centered around a deep belief in beauty, they tell of passion, humor, and the joy of life. In these three large-scale works, Glinka, Rimsky-Korsakov, and Paul Juon give us a glimpse into their most beautiful and glorified images and memories of Russia.

The program is framed by two arrangements that are characteristic of Berlin Counterpoint’s repertoire, transforming a large orchestral sound into a transparent, virtuosic, and, above all, flexible body of sound. The phrasing of melodies and the shaping of the sounds becomes an irresistibly captivating game for both the musicians and the audience.