The night of April 16, 2019 was a mild and light night at Antonine University, Hadat-Baabda campus. Indeed, an exceptional duo formed of Julian Steckel on the cello and Paul Rivinius on the piano was performing at the Our Lady of Seeds Chapel. In the small but competitive world of chamber music, these two musicians are no strangers.
At just 37 years old, Julian Steckel is already considered one of the leading cellists in the world. The amount of prizes and awards he received is impressive. He has indeed won the first prize of the prestigious ARD International Music Competition Munich and those of the Oehms Classics and the Münchner Kammerorchester. Perhaps Steckel was gifted by nature, as music runs in his family. His parents, brothers, and sisters are all also professional musicians.
For his performance in Lebanon, he chose to interpret a duet with Paul Rivinius, a German artist who received his first piano lessons at the age of five. No wonder Rivinius also won the ARD competition within a trio called the “Trio Clemente”, allowing him to perform in some of the most beautiful rooms in the world such as Carnegie Hall (New York) and Wigmore Halli (London).
The two long-time friends concocted the ideal program for us: two sonatas by Beethoven, one for the cello and the piano by Poulenc, and a last one by César Frank. The public was delighted by the beauty and the mastery of this performance!