Keywords: Chamber Music
| Oleh Kurochkin | Violin |
| Giulia Sofia Scilla | Violin |
| Martin Eßmann | Violin |
| Enrico Palascino | Violin |
| Lydia Rinecker | Viola |
| Isabel Kreuzpointner | Viola |
| Volkmar Weiche | Cello |
| Peter Albrecht | Cello |
| Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin |
| Octet for four violins, two violas and two cellos in A major op. 3 | Johan Severin Svendsen |
| String Octet in E flat major Op.20 | Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy |
These events are similar in terms of concept, place, musicians or the program.
Composed in 1785, Mozart’s K 478 was his first contribution to the piano quartet genre. The emotionality of the opening movement’s minore key and the subtly wrought dialogue between strings and piano proclaim its high artistic standards. No less brilliant is the Piano Quartet composed 100 years later by the young Richard Strauss. In his youthful élan he vacillates between engagement with romantic models (especially Brahms) and harbingers of his own style. The ennoblement of the clarinet as a chamber music instrument takes us back to Mozart. To the present day, many works owe their existence to the challenge of blending its timbre with the strings. The same is true of Veress’s Trio of 1972 and Penderecki’s Quartet of 1993, whose elegiac finale also pays tribute to Schubert’s C major Quintet.
Composed in 1785, Mozart’s K 478 was his first contribution to the piano quartet genre. The emotionality of the opening movement’s minore key and the subtly wrought dialogue between strings and piano proclaim its high artistic standards. No less brilliant is the Piano Quartet composed 100 years later by the young Richard Strauss. In his youthful élan he vacillates between engagement with romantic models (especially Brahms) and harbingers of his own style. The ennoblement of the clarinet as a chamber music instrument takes us back to Mozart. To the present day, many works owe their existence to the challenge of blending its timbre with the strings. The same is true of Veress’s Trio of 1972 and Penderecki’s Quartet of 1993, whose elegiac finale also pays tribute to Schubert’s C major Quintet.
This evening of Nordic chamber music covers a wide range of styles by composers from four Scandinavian countries. The historical starting point is the Septet for Winds and Strings, written in 1817 by the Swedish romantic composer Franz Berwald. It is unmistakably modelled on Beethoven’s masterpiece for the same combination of instruments. Grieg’s unfinished F major String Quartet of 1891 exudes a lilting charm and a Norwegian hue, while the E flat major Quartet by his Danish colleague Carl Nielsen (1898) strikes out on noticeably more modern paths. Rounding off the programme are two pièces de occasion: an enchanting Serenade with a touch of Vienna, composed by Sibelius during a holiday on Finland’s Archipelago Sea, and a humorous “unrequited” nocturnal serenade by Carl Nielsen, written during a concert tour in 1914.
This evening of Nordic chamber music covers a wide range of styles by composers from four Scandinavian countries. The historical starting point is the Septet for Winds and Strings, written in 1817 by the Swedish romantic composer Franz Berwald. It is unmistakably modelled on Beethoven’s masterpiece for the same combination of instruments. Grieg’s unfinished F major String Quartet of 1891 exudes a lilting charm and a Norwegian hue, while the E flat major Quartet by his Danish colleague Carl Nielsen (1898) strikes out on noticeably more modern paths. Rounding off the programme are two pièces de occasion: an enchanting Serenade with a touch of Vienna, composed by Sibelius during a holiday on Finland’s Archipelago Sea, and a humorous “unrequited” nocturnal serenade by Carl Nielsen, written during a concert tour in 1914.
“Sorrow always – upward glance – celestial dew – recollection”: thus the words that Anton Webern set in his aphoristically short work for soprano and string quartet. They also stand as a motto for this unusual and cleverly assembled programme. The works in the first section come from completely different eras and interlock like meditations – devout, contemplative, ravishingly beautiful, yet pervaded by a “sweet” tone of sorrow. Schubert’s G major Quartet also directs its gaze into unknown dimensions. Few works of chamber music sustain the combination of sorrow and supplication with such existential force and urgency as this unique visionary creation from the year 1826.
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