Keywords: Chamber Music
| Sarah Christian | Violin |
| Emma Yoon | Violin |
| Jürgen Winkler | Viola |
| Tristan Cornut | Cello |
| ›Rumänische Volkstänze‹ Sz. 56 for string quartet | Béla Bartók |
| ›Auf verwachsenem Pfade‹ for string quartet | Leoš Janáček |
| String quartet No. 10 in E flat major op. 51 | Antonín Dvořák |
These events are similar in terms of concept, place, musicians or the program.
On the occasion of Caspar David Friedrich’s 250th birthday – he was probably the most significant painter in the German Romantic era – he is the focus not only of a major Berlin exhibition, but also of a lecture-concert in the James Simon Gallery, architectural entry point to Museum Island. The evening is entitled ›The Magic of Silence‹, the title of a book on Friedrich that Florian Illies, its author, will shape jointly with clarinetist Bernhard Nusser, soprano Alessia Schumacher and pianist Dirk Wedmann. The programme consists of songs by Meyerbeer, Schubert, Schumann and Spohr that musically pick up on the Romantic spirit.
Probably France’s largest 17th century festival comes to life again here: the wedding between the »Sun King« Louis XIV and the Spanish princess Marie-Thérèse ended the long-standing hostility of both countries in 1660 and was fittingly ostentatiously celebrated, firstly on the Spanish border, then in Paris. Thereby, a large-scale musical setting befitting their social status from sacred works via fanfares to dance and opera should also be included. Vincent Dumestre, with his period performance orchestra Le Poème Harmonique and vocalists, has put together a splendid panorama of French baroque music, which transforms the entire Elbphilharmonie Grand Hall into a royal ballroom. The proverbial timpani and trumpets sound, there is a lot of music by Jean-Baptiste Lully – Louis XIV’s favourite composer – and by Francesco Cavalli, who travelled from Italy to Paris for the wedding specifically for performances of his operas. This programme incidentally evolved from Dumestre and his ensembles for the Palace of Versailles, which the Sun King had built as an overflowing, sumptuous structure – also to make space for the theatre, ballet and opera performances he so loved. Today, the stars of the early music scene take golden hammers into their hands here and sound repertoire gems of the 16th to 18th century.
Stars up close! Today, Augustin Hadelich is a world-leading violinist who conquers the world's stages and performs with the best orchestras, including the NOSPR. He returns with a chamber programme, in duo with the versatile piano virtuoso Francesco Piemontesi. Their concert, which will be dominated by French music, is designed in a modern way. There is no shortage of the canon of violin music, represented by Franck's striking, emotional, late Romantic sonata and Debussy's subtle, intimate sonata. They are accompanied by a third, wonderfully melodic sonata by Francis Poulenc. Both predecessors will shine through, as Poulenc's sounds focus their qualities like a lens because our perception changes with the context. Old French music (by de Grigny and Rameau) will indicate the roots of the work of the masters from the Seine banks mentioned above. György Kurtág's handful of short musical gestures, meanwhile, will allow us to pause for a moment to take a fresh look at what we already know. Adam Suprynowicz Concert duration (intermission included): approximately 90 minutes
Human existence is a contradictory business. »The Art of Being Human« explores the complex impacts of this trite fact. The Grammy award-winning viola da gamba ensemble Phantasm thereby ensures a musical performance at the very highest level. Its members put their instrumental mastery into operation for an evening in which old sounds and contemporary dance blend into an inseparable unit and jointly try to fathom the darkest recesses of the human condition. Choreographer Sommer Ulrickson and allround visual artist Alexander Polzin create a multidisciplinary framework in which music and movement come together, connect with each other, hook into each other, collide and cross fertilise. Under the leadership of Laurence Dreyfus, Phantasm plays music of English masters, such as John Dowland, Henry Purcell and William Byrd. At the same time, the musicians interact in the most diverse way with the dancers, who move as partners and yet adversaries around sculptures by the Berlin artist Alexander Polzin. The result is a staged concert evening, which makes full use of the potential of this currently popular format!
The music world owes a great debt of gratitude to clarinettist Anton Stadler. After all, he inspired Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to write a clarinet quintet which, with its yearning melodies, is one of the most beautiful works of chamber music. In turn, our Composer in Residence Wolfgang Rihm, who died in July , wrote his Four Studies for a clarinet quintet for the clarinettist and composer Jörg Widmann. According to Widmann, Rihm “understood and sensed the essence of our marvellous instrument like very few others”. Andraž Golob, bass clarinettist with the Berliner Philharmoniker since 2021, will present the two works together with colleagues.
The Era of the Crystal Palace expresses the Belle Epoque, the intriguing time of the major World Expo’s, with the rising of the Paris Tour Eifel, London’s Crystal Palace and the unbridled belief in progress. The 1889 Paris Exhibition in particular had a major influence on Western music, where Debussy, among others, was inspired by Javanese dance and gamelan music. The Dutch-Indies Constant van de Wall composed this Eastern gamelan music in a wonderful way for string instruments.George Antheil, the composer of new techniques, who shocked with the use of sirens and airplane propellers, wrote his swinging Serenade for String Orchestra in a romantic modern style with influences from Prokofiev and jazz. The beautiful harpsolo in Conte fantastique by André Caplet, a student of Claude Debussy, will be performed by Alexandra Bidi, a prize winner of the International ARD Musikwettbewerb 2023. And the concert concludes with the amazing orchestration of Ravel’s String Quartet by Rudolph Barshai.
Warsaw Philharmonic Chamber Music Hall
Joseph Haydn has been called “Papa Haydn”, both affectionately and pejoratively. Meanwhile, he was a composer whose mastery and unpredictability went hand in hand. Let us appreciate the emotional glimmering of the music, its surprising turns, sense of humour (the “menuet of the witches” quite unlike the court dance), or the finale inspired by music of the Romani people living in the borderlands of Austria and Hungary, where the composer spent most of his life. The spirit of Austria-Hungary is also referenced – already after the fall of the dual monarchy – in the modernist parodying miniatures by Erwin Schulhoff, who enhanced them with motifs of his native Czechia. Even though Szymanowski knew the capital of Austria-Hungary, he did not like it; his String Quartet No. 1 represents a different direction, as Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz wrote: “Never before has any of his works breathed such a scorching air of the South; not the heat of the Sicilian south or the mourning of the Greek heat, in which Pan’s flute kills hearts – but the juicy and ripe heat which smells like the crops of Ukraine.” Adam Suprynowicz Concert duration: approximately 60 minutes
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On this afternoon, when the new scholarship holders of our Joseph Keilberth Orchestra Academy perform chamber music together with musicians from our orchestra, it shows best how we make the young orchestral talents of tomorrow fit for the job: Listening to one another in a small ensemble is essential for the large community of the symphony orchestra. And what better way to learn than in concert? We can look forward to a colourful programme with masterpieces of chamber music literature. A surprise concert, as it were, because many scholarship holders have just been called into our orchestra, so that an exact programme can only be announced a few weeks before the concert. Looking forward to a »carte blanche« that will certainly not disappoint.
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