Philharmonic Chamber Music Recital

• Classical Music

The new concertmaster Daniel Cho presents a dazzling selection of the finest chamber music gems from Paris to Vienna. A child prodigy of music history provides the prelude, whisking us off to the vibrant Paris of the 1930s. There, the young Jean Françaix honed the zeitgeist and, at just 20 years old, immersed himself in the temptations of this musical centre that was to be the artistic home for so many artists and free spirits in the early 20th century.
The musicologist and musician Arthur Hoérée was succinct in his appraisal of the early work »Trio à cordes«: »a masterpiece«. From Paris, the programme moves on to Prague and Erwin Schulhoff, who was one of the most successful international composers of the 1920s before becoming embroiled in the machinations of the politics of the day. At the premiere of his first string quartet, however, success was in the air for him, with the tingling nervousness and the folkloristically coloured, dazzling variety of sound delighting both the press and the public. To this day, the work is still considered a milestone for every chamber music ensemble.

That avant-garde is not just a style but an internal way of being, as shown by Anton Webern’s final string quartet. On 12 March 1938, the day of Hitler’s invasion of Austria, he wrote to friends: »I am fully immersed in my work and do not wish to be disturbed.« And so it came to pass that a work of unparalleled concentration and technical elegance was born amidst the brutality of war raging all around.

The Sextet by Erich Wolfgang Korngold also demands the highest musical precision and virtuosity. The composer, who in his younger years was regarded as the legitimate successor of none other than Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, also labelled a »child prodigy«, is revered above all for his operas and film music. A prophetic foreshadowing of his great film scores can be heard in the String Sextet.

PERFORMERS

Daniel Cho violin

Yuri Katsumata-Monegatto violin

Naomi Seiler viola

Tomohiro Arita viola

Olivia Jeremias violoncello

Saskia Hirschinger violoncello

PROGRAM

Jean Françaix
Streichtrio

Erwin Schulhoff
Streichquartett Nr. 1

Anton Webern
Streichquartett op. 28

Erich Wolfgang Korngold
Streichsextett D-Dur op. 10