ConcertPulse
Hamburger Camerata / Gábor Hontvári
Elbphilharmonie, Großer Saal (Hamburg)
Double concertos for two solo instruments take the usual »concertante two-dimensionality« to »3D«, so to speak: in addition to the juxtaposition of solo and orchestra, there is also the relationship between the two solo parts to consider. And one is often inclined to imagine the latter as a role play: Are we witnessing a liaison or an argument between the two protagonists? True to its motto for the season, the Hamburg Camerata presents two such »3D concertante« works in this programme: in his piece for violin, cello and orchestra, the French Romantic composer Camille Saint-Saëns actually had the image of a muse in mind who ensnares a poet and frees him from his melancholy. It is not known whether the British contemporary Ethel Smyth had something similar in mind for her unusual double concerto for violin and horn. But the pioneer of the English women’s movement was certainly controversial. In contrast, Francis Poulenc saw his »Sinfonietta« from 1947 as more of a pleasure than a serious contribution to the time-honoured symphonic genre, in which the united »concertante camerata« breaks out into countless stylistic dimensions at the end.