Daniel Arias and Linda Leine

From an early age, Venezuelan-born cellist Daniel Arias was nurtured by the El Sistema music program in Caracas, where he remained a participant until 2011. His final exams in Hamburg, for his concert soloist diploma, achieved the highest score; among other performances, he played an outstanding rendition of Prokofiev's Sinfonia Concertante with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra. This appearance marked the beginning of his promising career.

In 2019/2020, Daniel Arias was an Artist in Residence at the Maison Heinrich Heine in Paris. A career highlight was an invitation to the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, where he performed with Daniel Hope, leading to re-invitations and performances with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra in Prague's Smetana Hall and at the Prague Spring Festival under Maestro Peter Chormcak. He has toured globally with the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra under Maestro Gustavo Dudamel and thrilled audiences in concerts with the Chamber Ensemble Konsonanz Bremen at the Berlin Philharmonie.

Program Description

The duo Leine & Arias's concert program takes the audience from the early 19th to the late 20th century, showcasing a variety of chamber music styles. Robert Schumann's composition Adagio and Allegro in A-flat Major, Op. 70, originally for horn and piano, is one of the first romantic chamber music works for the modern F horn. Moving to Sergei Prokofiev's Cello Sonata in C Major, Op. 119, composed in 1949, the sonata reflects the tensions and uncertainties of its time while remaining true to classical-romantic forms and tonalities.

The second half begins with Schumann's Fantasiestücke Op. 73, a charming three-movement work that embodies the romantic tradition of the 19th century and demonstrates Schumann's expressive mastery. The concert concludes with Francis Poulenc's Sonata for Cello and Piano, written in 1948, a century after Schumann's Fantasiestücke, combining irony, lyrical beauty, and dance elements, reflecting the atmosphere and rhythm of its time with march rhythms and longing melodies.