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Michelangelo String Quartet & Friends
Laeiszhalle, Kleiner Saal (Hamburg)
Michelangelo String Quartet
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Michelangelo String Quartet
Charity Gala: Sumi Jo & Friends for Ukrainian Children
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.
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.