Karl Markovics & Eggner Trio: Nikolai Gogol's The Overcoat

Nikolai Gogol’s novella "The Overcoat" is one of the most significant works of Russian literature and tells the touching story of the clerk Akaky Akakievich Bashmachkin. His lonely but contented life is thrown into disarray when he must buy a new coat—a garment that initially brings him new joy, until it is stolen from him and plunges him into despair. Karl Markovics lends an urgent voice to this narrative, which is both deeply empathetic and socially critical.

The reading is accompanied by the Eggner Trio, which evokes the "sound of St. Petersburg" with Dmitri Shostakovich’s Piano Trios No. 1 and No. 2. Composed in 1923, Piano Trio No. 1 and premiered in the city in 1944, Piano Trio No. 2 reflect the atmosphere of the novella and underscore the emotional depth of the plot. A unique fusion of literature and music that makes Gogol’s masterpiece newly tangible.