In memoriam Jörg Demus

Johann Sebastian Bach – Violin Sonata No. 3 & No. 4

Violin Sonatas, Op. 35 “Il tramonto” and Op. 7 “Gahberg Sonata”

Concert durations: 34min & 43 min

In memoriam Jörg Demus – my last recording with him, autumn 2018

With the great pianist Jörg Demus, born on Dec. 2, 1928, in St. Pölten, Austria, I had a long productive collaboration. Some fruits of our artistic partnership – violin sonatas by Johann Sebastian Bach and Jörg Demus himself, recorded in his piano museum in the Salzkammergut, will be presented. In the first concert you can listen to the violin sonata No, 3 in E major and the violin sonata Nr. 4 in C minor by Johann Sebastian Bach. Demus loved this composer very much. Bach`s Well-Tempered Clavier Book he had studied since he was 12 years old. Demus often claimed that he is the only pianist who can play it by memory. I was always overwhelmed by his prodigious memory. Not many people know that Demus was also a composer. In the second concert we play two of his own violin sonatas, Op. 35 “Il tramonto” and Op. 7 “Gahberg Sonata”, which is inspired from the local mountain of Weyregg am Attersee in Upper Austria, where Demus always spent his summer holidays, teaching his students. The concerts are recorded on SACD too (Label Gramola). Jörg Demus died in Vienna on April 16, 2019.

Performers:

Thomas Albertus Irnberger, violin

Jörg Demus, piano