Vilmos Montag's Sonata for Double Bass and Piano: the Crown Jewel of the Duo Repertoire

Join us for a unique performance of one of the most important works for double bass and piano, brought to you directly from Salzburg, Austria! As an appendix to the performance, pianist Andrei Gologan and double bassist Dominik Wagner would also like to welcome you to an in-depth analysis in Zoom of this rarely heard sonata, a milestone of the repertoire for double bass and piano.

About Dominik Wagner:

As scholarship holder of the Anne-Sophie Mutter foundation and prize winner of the ECHO Classic award, the double bassist Dominik Wagner is on the best way to present his instrument from a new perspective on an international basis.

He won prizes at almost all double bass competitions, such as the renowned ARD Music Competition and the Eurovision Young Musicians Competition. In the latter he represented Austria in the finals, where he played Serge Koussevitzky’s double bass concerto with the WDR Symphony Orchestra. The performance was broadcasted live throughout Europe on television.

As a soloist Dominik also played with Orchestras such as the BR-Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Chamber Orchestra, the German Chamberphilharmonic Orchestra Bremen, the Slowenian Philharmonic Orchestra and the Vienna Chamber Orchestra. Consequently, Dominik played in many renowned concert halls such as Musikverein Wien, Konzerthaus Wien, Konzerthaus Berlin, Herkulessaal München, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and the Glocke in Bremen.

Recently, the double bassist was also very successful in the United States. He won the International Bradetich Competition, which, amongst other things, was rewarded with the opportunity to record a CD and play a recital in the Carnegie Hall. 



Dominik also works closely with contemporary composers to increase the repertoire for the double bass. He premiered several double bass concertos like the double bass concerto by Georg Breinschmid in 2019 which he also recorded in the same year, as well as pieces for double bass solo and chamber music.



Besides his activities as a soloist, Dominik also shows great passion in playing chamber music. Together with the clarinet player Vera Karner, he performed in many concerts and competitions with the instrumentation clarinet, double bass and piano. After competing successfully, they were awarded the Fanny Mendelssohn Förderpreis, which lead to the production of their first CD “Gassenhauer Gassenbauer” with the renowned Label Berlin Classics. Additionally, as a part of to the Great Talent Program of the Wiener Konzerthaus, Dominik got the opportunity to perform together with great musicians like Elisabeth Leonskaja and Gerhard Schulz.

To show the potential of using unusual instrumentations, he recently played a concert in the constellation violin, double bass and percussion together with Emmanuel Tjeknavorian and Christoph Sietzen.

Dominik Emanuel Wagner was born in Vienna in 1997 where he started his musical education at the age of 5, at first as a cellist, later as a double bassist. In the year 2009 he started studying at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Josef Niederhammer and Werner Fleischmann. Currently he is studying at the University of Music in Nürnberg with Dorin Marc.

About Andrei Gologan:

Acclaimed for music-making of intense intellectual and spiritual substance, pianist Andrei Gologan has garnered support and guidance from renowned musicians such as Sir András Schiff and Richard Goode. Andrei has been characterized as “a poet of piano playing” (Süddeutsche Zeitung) with “rich variety of sonorities” and “technical brilliance” (General-Anzeiger Bonn). He crafts concert programs to explore the rhetoric in music and how it contributes to the expressive and technical language of the piano repertoire.

Andrei was recently invited by Sir András Schiff to perform in the concert series Building Bridges - Andras Schiff Presents Young Pianists, an initiative aimed towards supporting a new generation of outstanding pianists. The series included debut recitals at the Konzerthaus in Berlin, deSingel in Antwerp, the Beethovenhaus in Bonn, among others. Other recent appearances include Herkulessaal in München, the Stiftung Mozarteum in Salzburg, St. Martin in the Fields in London, and the MuTh in Vienna. He has also collaborated with ensembles such as the Camerata Salzburg, the Kiev Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Sándor Végh Chamber Orchestra.

An avid chamber musician, Andrei performed with artists such as Gregory Ahss, Shirley Brill, William Coleman, Volker Jacobsen, Lena Neudauer and Jennifer Stumm in various festivals such as the Krzyzowa Chamber Music Festival, the ClasClas Festival in Vilagarcia de Arousa, and Villa Musica in Mainz.

Garnering top prizes in the Vladimir Horowitz, the Sigismund Thalberg, and the Lions Club International Piano Competitions, Andrei receives regular guidance from Sir András Schiff, Richard Goode, and Claudio Martinez-Mehner. He is also a scholarship recipient of the Verbier Festival Academy, the Oxford Piano Festival, IMS Prussia Cove, and the International Music Academy in the Principality of Liechtenstein. Past mentors include Daniel Barenboim, Ferenc Rados, Gidon Kremer, Gabor Takács-Nagy, Pamela Frank, Rita Wagner, Hung-Kuan Chen, and Thomas Adès.

The summers of 2017 and 2018 saw Andrei in the novel position of co-organising the concert series, Salzburg Mozart Matinees. The focus of the endeavor was to present outstanding young musicians, actors, and visual artists while combining different ways of expression in a harmonious interdisciplinary setting.

Andrei Gologan was born in Romania in a family of non-musicians. At the age of five, he received his first piano lesson, and only six months later won his first piano competition performing works by Czerny, Beethoven and Schumann. In the years to come he continued his musical education with the pianist and composer Iulian Arcadi Trofin. Andrei recently completed his studies at the Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg with Pavel Gililov. Throughout his studies, Andrei has been generously sponsored by the PE-Förderung für Studierende der Musik, as well as the Lions Club in Austria.

Andrei currently resides in Salzburg, where he enjoys the surrounding nature and his collection of books and LPs.

What's the music?

Andrei Gologan Piano

Attendees

Christos V. Emcee

Grant B.

Judith U.

Ellen P.

Howard S. (he/him)

Marty B.

Teta M. (she/her)

Kay L.

Anaïs P.

Catherine W.

Eric W.

Lynn G.

Michael B.

Sarah Z.

Matthew W.

Nancy Willard T.

Elizabeth R.

Amy G.

+1

Laurilyn J.

Hugh H.

Beverly B.

Robert W M.

Sandra C.

Thea L.

Michael

Elizabeth F.

Catherine B.

Natarajan K.

Sasha F.

Keren B.

Natalia P.

Ron L.

Kent C.

Teresa K.

Barbara C.

Mónica M.

Luke R.

Ed Boesel (he/him)

Al D.

Philip F.

Musaics O.

Aviad M.

Lauren S.

Matthew M.

Esther V.

Yue X.

Tasha W.

Mary Alice W.

Brown R.

Angela G.

Nancy K.

Catherine S.

Darril A T.

REINHARD VON A.

Bettina S.

Gadi G.