Violist Karolina Errera’s Performs Ernö Dohnányi’s Trio

Watch Errera's performances with cellist Andrei Ioniță and VC Artist Kevin Zhu in the Berlin salon series

Violist Karolina Errera has shared the newly produced videos of her performing Ernö Dohnányi’s (1877-1960) Serenade for String Trio, Op. 10 with VC Artist Kevin Zhu and the Romanian cellist Andrei Ioniță. 

The trio performed as part of Yannick’s Salon concert series in Berlin, which is a chamber music salon formed in 2022 by pianist Yannick Rafalimanana. The salon’s debut took place as part of the 2022 Fête de la Musique. 

Rather than the traditional stage and audience format, the salon has the musicians sit amid the audience members, who are seated around the ensemble, and even on the stage as they view the ensemble from above.  

Well known in Hungary at the time as a pianist, Dohnányi was 26 when he wrote his progressive Serenade for String Trio in 1904.

He drew attention as a composer around 1895, when Brahms praised his Op. 1 Piano Quintet and subsequently arranged its Vienna premiere.  

Dohnányi studied at the Budapest Academy of Music, where Bartók and Kodály would also later attend. By the 1930s, he was director of the school, music director of Hungarian Radio, and chief conductor of the Budapest Philharmonic.

Here, Errera, Zhu, and Ioniță perform the fourth and fifth movements of the Serenade. The fourth movement is in the format of a theme and five variations before transitioning into the rondo fifth movement with striking double-stops and scalic passages. 

Recorded in June 2023, the performance was produced by the Culiner Creative Circle video production company at Berlin’s Peter Edel Education and Cultural Center, where the salon series is held each month. 

Dohnányi | Serenade for String Trio, Op. 10 | IV. Tema con variazioni, Andante con moto 

Dohnányi | Serenade for String Trio, Op. 10 | V. Rondo

Violist Karolina Errera has held chamber music collaborations with artists such as Sir András Schiff, Bomsori Kim, Gidon Kremer, Vilde Frang, Gary Hoffmann, Jörg Widdmann, Viviane Hagner, Nils Mönkemeyer, Antje Weithaas, Vadim Gluzman, and Gil Shaham.

Her debut album “Songs of Rain” with pianist Lilit Grigoryan was released on Genuin Classics in 2022 and has since received several nominations by the 2023 Opus Klassik Awards. Additionally, she is the former winner of the 9th Jan Rakowski Viola Competition and the VIII International Yuri Bashmet Viola Competition.

She studied at the University of Arts Berlin, Hanns Eisler Musikhochschule, and the Kronberg Academy. Her mentors included Wilfried Strehle and Tabea Zimmermann.