“Is exile pain and isolation or also a source of inspiration?” asks the Moldovan violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja and provides the answer herself: ​“What remains for composers, for us musicians, for us humans, is the exile into art, into the unspeakable of the music which eludes every conceptualisation.” Works by six composers who went into exile for various reasons form the thread of the fourth concert of the Philharmonie Essen Portrait Artist Patricia Kopatchinskaja — a new project she designed together with cellist Thomas Kaufmann and Camerata Bern holding the role of the ensemble’s Artistic Partner. After being performed at Casino Bern on 10 March 2024 and at the Philharmonie in Essen on 17 March, Kopatchinskaja brings her new project Exile to the Heidelberger Frühling on 18 March.

Together, the artists follow folkloric traces and present music by six Eastern European composers. To discover among the evening’s programme is the quarter-tone composed second string quartet by the Russian Ivan Wyschnegradsky, the Sonata for Cello and Piano No.1 in an arrangement for cello, strings and harpsichord by the polystylist Alfred Schnittke and a violin concerto by Andrzey Panufnik, written for Yehudi Menuhin. Adding a new work by Alexey Retinsky, who lives in Vienna in exile, the team joins forces to make music in the service of the memory. 

On 24 March, Alina Pogostkina takes part of the Festival with Jérôme Ducros in a programme featuring Beethoven, Debussy and Franck.

Timothy Ridout performs on 27 March with Frank Dupree for a programme featuring Enescu, Fauré, Clarke, Bridge and Bowen.