ConcertPulse
Chiaroscuro Quartet / Cédric Tiberghien
Laeiszhalle, Kleiner Saal (Hamburg)
Founded while its members were all still studying at the renowned Royal College of Music in London, the Chiaroscuro Quartet will be celebrating its 20th anniversary next year. After all that time it is no wonder that Alina Ibragimova, Charlotte Saluste-Bridoux, Emilie Hörnlund and Claire Thirion share an implicit trust when making music together. One particular thing that makes them so special is the historical instruments they play on, which gives many well-known works an unexpected, fresh sound. They are joined by the world-class pianist Cédric Tiberghien, who has been Alina Ibragimova’s piano partner for many years now. He too is playing an historical grand piano for the evening’s programme. From his Op. 9 onwards, Joseph Haydn regarded his string quartets as part of the genre that he would go down in music history as having founded. Rather than writing divertimentos, commissioned by aristocratic patrons as a distracting amusement, he was now set on writing music to be listened to. And the Chiaroscuro Quartet, whose Haydn recordings were described by BR as a »sprightly, irresistibly brilliant attack on the ear – thrilling in the best sense of the word«, certainly demand to be listened to with a captivated attention. It promises to be equally lively when the quartet applies its playing style to the Romantics Schumann and Brahms, accompanied by the pianist Cédric Tiberghien, who won the German Record Critics’ Award with a Brahms chamber music album. Robert Schumann’s Piano Quintet is at times tumultuous and at other times extremely tender, written to involve his wife, the piano virtuoso Clara Schumann, in the recent successes of his chamber music. Being a close friend of Johannes Brahms, she in turn encouraged him to rewrite a sonata for two pianos as a piano quintet, fearing that otherwise »many of the most beautiful ideas would be lost«. Brahms took her advice and went on to create chamber music filled with magnificent, almost orchestral tonal colours.
