Viola

Watch this space | Viola, Viola

Spotlight on the viola(s)! The composer and viola player Klaus-Peter Werani has assembled an all-viola programme with his BRSO colleagues Tobias Reifland, Anja Kreynacke, Giovanni Menna and German Tcakulov. It consists entirely of works from the modern era to the present day, all devoted to the deep and rich tone of the viola in combinations ranging from duo to string quintet. Founded during the covid pandemic, Watch This Space has evolved into a chamber music series that focuses not only on the new performance arena in Munich’s Werksviertel-Mitte district, but also on rarely heard works in smaller formats.

Viola d’amore

Echo Rising Stars with viola

The French-Dutch violist Sào Soulez Larivière is trained at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin, where he now resides. He has received numerous awards for his brilliant playing and is also praised for his exciting programs. Since 2023, Sào Soulez Larivière has been teaching at the Mozarteum in Salzburg.Together with pianist Annika Treutler, Sào Soulez Larivière released his first album, Impressions, in 2021. Now they begin the concert with Robert Schumann's enchanting Märchenbilder (Fairy Tales) for viola and piano and conclude with Shostakovich's Sonata for Viola and Piano, his very last composition. In between, a newly written piece by American composer Julia Wolfe, who was once involved in founding the almost cult-favorite music collective Bang on a Can.Rising Stars is a unique and forward-looking collaboration between 24 of Europe’s leading concert halls, all members of the European Concert Hall Organisation (ECHO). A handful of young musicians and ensembles from various countries are selected each year and given the opportunity to tour the concert halls and perform before international audiences. Experience shows that those who are selected as Rising Stars also have internationally successful careers.

Kammermusikmatinee des Konzerthausorchesters

Originating from South Africa, Germany and France, the members of the Franz Trio came together at the Konzerthaus in 2017 and have been performing with us regularly ever since. The program of their first concert together included a trio by their namesake Franz Schubert. This season, they have been joined by additional orchestra members: principal piccolo player Daniel Werner, principal oboist Szilvia Pápai and principal harpist Ronith Mues. Violist Ernst-Martin Schmidt on the program: “Three composers in three countries come up with enchantingly beautiful chamber music in the war year 1916: Max Reger writes his 2nd String Trio, Claude Debussy and Arnold Bax are inspired by the delicate combination of flute, viola and harp. Benjamin Britten's Phantasy Quartet for oboe and strings from 1932 and Jean Françaix's String Trio from 1933 bear witness to the witty, original chamber music created in England and France a generation later. This colourful program opens with a Fantasia by the forefather of English music, Henry Purcell. Max Reger struggles with him to the best of his ability to achieve mastery in the art of polyphonic composition.”

„Haydn statt Regen – Ligeti statt Grau“

The Klangforum at the Musikwerkstatt will be open before and after the concert.

Verborgene Tiefe unter der scheinbaren Einfachheit

Quintessenz

Kammermusikmatinee des Konzerthausorchesters

The programme that contrabassist Igor Prokopets has put together with four string colleagues for our matinee two days before Christmas ranges from unusual duos to orchestral symbiosis in a quintet. Each piece combines the eight strings of two string instruments differently: sometimes very high with very low in the “sophisticated Piazzolla arrangement, in which the double bass also becomes a percussionist and the violin literally celebrates the tango” (Prokopets). Sometimes as a neighborly encounter between violin and viola, which instead of the original piano trace a short piece from Bartók's great Hungarian journey in 1905 in “Seven Romanian Dances”. Or with violin and cello, who take on the famous Passacaglia from Handel's G minor suite for harpsichord. Igor Prokopets could tell a lot about Giovanni Bottesini, whose “Gran Quintetto” forms the finale: As a musician, the Italian found his way to the lowest string instrument at an early age and wrote numerous pieces to suit it, including three concertos that are still popular today. He later became a conductor and even conducted the world premiere of Verdi's “Aida” in Cairo - but his heart definitely belonged to the double bass!

Abwechslung ist die Seele der Musik

At Sunday's chamber music concert in Hall 1 of the Tabakquartier, alternating ensembles from the ranks of the Bremen Philharmonic will present some of their favorite works from the chamber music repertoire.