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International Mendelssohn Festival 2024

Wed, Sep 11, 2024, 19:30
Elbphilharmonie, Kleiner Saal (Hamburg)
Sophia Jaffé (Violin), Niklas Schmidt (Cello), Stepan Simonian (Piano), Fabio Witkowski (Piano), Gisele Witkowski (Piano), Ralph Evans (Violin), Efim Boico (Violin), Gil Sharon (Viola)
The title of the evening alludes to Proust’s novel cycle »In Search of Lost Time«. The sonata by the fictional composer Vinteuil, whose »little phrase« reminds the novel’s character Charles Swann of his love Odette de Crécy, poses the riddle of who the real-life inspiration behind the Vinteuil Sonata is. The name César Franck is often mentioned. Whether the little phrase really comes from Franck’s violin sonata will remain forever unclear. What is certain, however, is that Franck created one of the most beautiful works in the genre with his Sonata in A major.
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International Mendelssohn Festival 2024

Sat, Sep 14, 2024, 19:30
Elbphilharmonie, Kleiner Saal (Hamburg)
Ron Selka (Clarinet), Sophia Jaffé (Violin), Anna Kreetta Gribajcevic (Viola), Cyprien Katsaris (Piano), Stepan Simonian (Piano), Ralph Evans (Violin), Efim Boico (Violin), Gil Sharon (Viola), Niklas Schmidt (Cello)
Friends, patrons, spouses, clergy and royalty were often the recipients of musical dedications. Mozart’s Trio in E-flat major bears a dedication to his piano pupil Franziska von Jacquin. The premiere took place in the Jacquins’ home, with Anton Stadler on the clarinet, Franziska on the piano and Mozart himself on the viola. An unusual instrumentation at the time, which proved to be a stroke of luck in chamber music. Prokofiev’s Five Melodies are a reworking of the Five Songs Without Words, which he dedicated to the soprano and personal friend Nina Koshetz. Ysaÿe dedicated each of the six solo sonatas to a different colleague, the fifth to his pupil Matthieu Chrickboom. But not every dedication is well received: César Franck wrote the dedication »To my good friend Camille Saint-Saëns« on the score of his Piano Quintet in F minor. Although Saint-Saëns played the piano part at the premiere, he was unable to do anything with the work and demonstratively left the sheet music on the piano at the end of the performance. Not a good start for a composition that is now regarded as a masterpiece from Franck’s later creative period.
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International Mendelssohn Festival 2024

Mon, Sep 16, 2024, 19:30
Elbphilharmonie, Kleiner Saal (Hamburg)
Ralph Evans (Violin), Efim Boico (Violin), Gil Sharon (Viola), Niklas Schmidt (Cello), Cyprien Katsaris (Piano)
The great opera composer Giuseppe Verdi, who opens this concert evening, called his only string quartet »a gimmick«. Legend has it that he composed his quartet purely as a pastime, as rehearsals for performances of his »Aida« in Naples had come to a standstill. As so often, Verdi was understating the case. The French-Cypriot pianist Cyprien Katsaris continues the gimmick with a spontaneous improvisation on Verdi’s operatic themes. In the rest of the programme, Katsaris plays romances, songs and fantasies by Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn and Franz Liszt. Cyprien Katsaris is a piano virtuoso with a very special affinity for Liszt and has contributed greatly to a new view of Liszt’s piano works throughout his life. In 2023, he received the Franz Liszt Prize of Honour, awarded by the Klassik Stiftung Weimar and the Neue Liszt Stiftung.
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International Mendelssohn Festival 2024

Tue, Sep 17, 2024, 19:30
Elbphilharmonie, Kleiner Saal (Hamburg)
Matthias Lingenfelder (Violin), Hartmut Rohde (Viola), Frans Helmerson (Cello), Jan Talich (Violin), Roman Patočka (Violin), Radim Sedmidubský (Viola), Michal Kaňka (Cello), Ralph Evans (Violin), Efim Boico (Violin), Gil Sharon (Viola), Niklas Schmidt (Cello)
It’s about joy and happiness, about love and longing, and also sometimes about difficult and sad things. In short, it is about everything that comes directly »from life«. Bedřich Smetana’s String Quartet No. 1 forms the overarching theme of this multi-layered concert evening. Two composers from Hamburg are represented in this programme: Johannes Brahms has the last word with his String Sextet in B-flat major, while his much lesser-known compatriot Ferdinand David appears with his Sonata for violin solo op. 43. The Saxon city of Leipzig became the centre of life for the composer and violinist David, who taught Joseph Joachim, the violin legend who also inspired Brahms, at the Leipzig Conservatory.
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International Mendelssohn Festival 2024

Fri, Sep 20, 2024, 19:30
Elbphilharmonie, Kleiner Saal (Hamburg)
André Cazalet (French horn), Michel Lethiec (Clarinet), Jean-Louis Capezzali (Oboe), Matthias Lingenfelder (Violin), Hartmut Rohde (Viola), Frans Helmerson (Cello), Arto Noras (Cello), Oliver Triendl (Piano), Jan Talich (Violin), Roman Patočka (Violin), Radim Sedmidubský (Viola), Michal Kaňka (Cello)
Mikhail Glinka’s »Divertimento brillante« dates from a time when Glinka was living in Italy and saw the world premiere of Bellini’s bel canto opera »La Sonnambula« at La Scala in Milan. The melodic material comes from this opera, Glinka’s Divertimento consists of just one long movement with a brilliant finale, from which the work undoubtedly takes its name. The first half of the concert focuses on Finland’s musical heritage, including »Don Juanquijoten Virtuoosinen Pöytämusiikki« (The Virtuoso Table Music of Don Quixote) by Aulis Sallinen, which was written to celebrate the 70th birthday of cellist Arto Noras and premiered by Noras in Helsinki in 2012. Noras himself also performs this work here in Hamburg. In Janáček’s »Moravian Folk Poetry in Songs«, the stage belongs entirely to the strings of the Czech Talich Quartet, while Dohnányi’s Sextet, Op. 73 forms the finale, a work composed entirely in the spirit of late Romanticism, yet also infected by the zeitgeist: with a kind of ragtime for clarinet and piano in the finale.