The New Year’s concert featuring the ensemble led by Hamburg violinist and ECHO Klassik award winner Gustav Frielinghaus has become a firmly established fixture in the Elbphilharmonie’s calendar.
The programme brings together two landmark works of the string quintet repertoire. Mozart’s Quintet in C major, K. 515, is one of his most expansive chamber works. Its broad, sweeping movements unfold into lively dialogues between the five voices, full of elegance, wit and unexpected turns.
Brahms’s Quintet in G major, Op. 111, offers a striking contrast. The composer initially regarded it as the culmination of his creative output. From the opening, in which the cello asserts itself against the simmering soundscape of the other instruments, the music has an almost orchestral character. Sweeping textures, Romantic outbursts and echoes of Hungarian folk music combine to create a late masterpiece brimming with joie de vivre. A festive start to the new year, bringing two composers together at the height of their powers.
PERFORMERS
Frielinghaus Ensemble chamber ensemble
Gustav Frielinghaus violin
Sheng-FangChiu violin
Gonzalo Martin RodriguezMartin Rodriguez viola
Pietro Montemagni viola
Lionel Martin violoncello
PROGRAM
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Streichquintett C-Dur KV 515
Johannes Brahms
String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op. 111
The concert takes place without an interval.
