Frauke Thomsen-Otter and Fabiola Schelmbauer delighted the audience with solo works by Bach and Telemann and modern compositions for violin and soprano at the First Friday concert on 6 March 2026 in the Kunsthalle Darmstadt. The two musicians and students of Akademie für Tonkunst demonstrated their musical skills in front of modern works of art by Harm Gerdes and received great applause from the numerous visitors.
Frauke Thomsen-Otter opened the evening as a soloist. She played Johann Sebastian Bach's Suite for Cello Solo No. 4 (BWV 1010) in a transcription for viola. Whether dance-like, expressive or lyrical: Frauke Thomsen-Otter played in a multi-faceted manner and with great enthusiasm. She then performed the Fantasia No. 7 for solo violin by Georg Philipp Telemann, also on the viola.
In the second part of the First Friday concert, modern works were on the programme. Soprano Fabiola Schelmbauer and Frauke Thomsen-Otter on the violin first performed several movements from György Kurtág's Kafka Fragments op. 24. The extremely short pieces are characterised by vulnerability and inner turmoil, which the two musicians expressed very well. The radiant and powerful vocals and the violin were very well harmonised - as if they were having a conversation with each other. Fabiola Schelmbauer and Frauke Thomsen-Otter also demonstrated their musical skills and excellent interplay once again in the final piece „Changing Light“ by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho.
A total of six First Friday concerts will take place at the Kunsthalle Darmstadt in 2026. There is a review of the first one here.
The other dates:
5 June 2026: Flute & clarinet music (classes by Mareile Erten & Michael Schmidt)
2 October 2026: Guitar duo Aleksa Šarčević & Danijel Dondjivić
6 November 2026: Violin music (class of Rüdiger Lotter)
4 December 2026: Clarinet music (class of Michael Schmidt)
Photos: © oliver zang / photography
