Arabella STEINBACHER, violin

Gregory AHSS, violin and leading

Firmian LERMER, viola and leading

CAMERATA SALZBURG

In this concert, the violinist Arabella STEINBACHER replaces, performing the same program, Janine JANSEN, who has been forced to suspend her tour for health reasons.

Adagio en fa major del quintet de corda, WAB 112
A. Bruckner (1824 – 1896)

Concert per a violí núm. 4 en re major, K. 218 (1775)
W. A. Mozart (1756 – 1791)

I. Allegro

II. Andante cantabile

III. Rondeau (Andante grazioso – Allegro ma non troppo)

Serenata núm. 2  en la major, op. 16
J. Brahms (1833 – 1897)

I. Allegro moderato 
II. Vivace – Trio
III. Adagio non troppo 
IV. Quasi menuetto – Trio 
V. Rondo. Allegro 

Gregory Ahss, violí i director*

Firmian Lermer, viola i director*

Gregory Ahss*,György Acs, Izso Bajusz, Stephanie Baubin, Dalina Ugarte, Anna Maria Malm, Kio Seiler; violins I

Michaela Girardi, Yukiko Tezuka, Annelie Gahl, Werner Neugebauer, Anna Lindenbaum, Risa Schuchter; violins II

Firmian Lermer*, Claudia Hofert, Jutas Javorka, Ulrike Landsmann, Arabella Bozic; violes

Angela Park, Jeremy Findlay, Shane Woodborne, Valerie Fritz; violoncels

Josef Radauer, Notburga Pichler, Christian Junger; contrabaixos

Wally Hase, Eva Schinnerl, Eva Fandl; flautes

Matthias Bäcker, Laura Urbina; oboès

Wolfgang Klinser, Philip Watson; clarinets

Marco Lugaresi, Sergio Giordano; fagots

Johannes Hinterholzer, Michael Reifer; trompes

PROGRAM NOTES

Mercè Pons (composer and director of the Gabinet de Comprensió Musical GACOMUS) 

Anton BRUCKNER (1824 – 1896) 

Adagio in F major from the String Quintet WAB 112 

The String Quintet in F major, composed between 1878 and 1879, is Bruckner’s only contribution to chamber music, except for a “student piece” in the composer’s own words, which was written in 1862 and comprised of a string quartet that was not discovered until after the Second World War and published in 1955. 

The string quintet was commissioned by Joseph Hellmesberger, who at the time was conductor at the Vienna Conservatory and leader of an excellent quartet. In fact, Bruckner’s commission was to compose a quartet, but Bruckner added a second viola to the quartet formation (two violins, viola and cello) in order to emphasise and particularly enhance the middle range of the string spectrum, therefore making a quintet. 

This boldly counterpoint-driven piece features four movements, of which the third, Adagio, will be performed today, giving us the chance to hear the sheer beauty and expressive force of its two themes. The main theme, largely expressed by the first violin, is harmonised with lavish counter-songs. The first viola introduces the second theme over a delicate accompaniment from the high-pitched strings. The ensemble builds in intensity until it reaches a culmination of powerful emotional force and ends very softly and delicately.

Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756 – 1791) 
Violin Concerto No.  4 in D major, K. 218 

Although Mozart was a great pianist, he also acquired extensive violin training from his father, Leopold (author of the Treatise on the Fundamentals of Violin Performance, published in 1756, the year of his son’s birth). It is therefore not surprising that Wolfgang was attracted, as a composer, by the magic of the violin, and so in less than a year (in 1775, in Salzburg, at the age of 19), he composed five concertos for violin and orchestra. 

The Violin and Orchestra Concerto No.  4 is one of the most virtuoso concertos in the suite, where the orchestra takes a supporting role in favour of the soloist. 

As usual, this concerto is structured in three movements. 

Mozart begins the first movement, Allegro, similarly to several of his later piano concertos, with a trumpet fanfare theme featuring the full orchestra in unison (but without trumpets). An almost fanciful little string melody follows this theme. The solo violin cadenza appears at the end of this movement, followed by the orchestral tutti to end conclusively. 

The second movement, Andante, begins, like the first, with an introduction by the orchestra followed by a calm and serene song by the soloist, echoed by the oboes. Later the soloist repeats the same melody, alternating between the high and low ranges of the instrument. This movement also ends with a violin cadenza, and this time the orchestra’s emergence will provide a gentle and serene ending.

In the last movement, a Rondo, the alternating tempi Andante grazioso and Allegro non troppo give it a flexible, somewhat fantasy-like structure. Following the repetition of Andante and Allegro, a secondary theme appears, introducing a tonic pedal to the oboes and soloist, providing a change in both tempo and style. The repetition of the first two sections brings the Rondo and this concerto, full of Mozart’s characteristic beauty and genius, to an end. 

Johannes BRAHMS (1833 – 1897) 
Serenade No. 2 in A major, op. 16 

The two serenades (op.  11 and op.  16), composed between 1857 and 1860, were Brahms’ first published orchestral compositions. They were written during his stay as a chapel master at the court of Lippe-Detmold (1857-1860), where he had a rich library to study writing procedures for horn and wind ensembles.

This could be the reason for the choice of instrumentation in Serenade No.  2. In the score, Brahms favours a full woodwind section, plus two horns, and rejects trumpets and timpani as well as violins. Brahms would again exclude the violins around seven years after the composition of this serenade. This would occur in the first movement of A German Requiem.

His choice of instruments for the serenade gave him a very particular set of sounds to work with. What is lost in the brightness of the high strings is gained in the warmth of the low strings, where the viola is the highest-pitched voice. The shift in string sonority is compensated for by the robust qualities of the chosen wind section. 

Brahms divides the piece into five movements. In the first, Allegro moderato, the winds begin by sketching the main theme. Brahms develops the theme as the music progresses, sometimes with fragments leading to more energetic motifs. 

Then follows the first of the two scherzos, Vivace, where the composer hints at the music of the Hungarian immigrants he heard in his youth.

The Adagio non troppo, which takes centre stage, was Clara Schumann’s favourite movement, and it is said that she played it over and over again on the piano. Brahms employs a unifying device that brings these parts of the serenade together as he transforms the first movement’s theme into its fundamental motif, giving it a great dramatic beauty that contrasts with the preceding and following movements. 

Brahms dispenses with the horns in the fourth movement, Quasi menuetto, and creates a second scherzo that is lively and elegant at the same time.

In the last movement, an Allegro-tempo Rondo, we find a hunting ambience in the main theme, combined with a variety of mood changes, and contrasting secondary themes to end the work brilliantly, which Brahms accomplishes with his mastery and increased use of the piccolo in the instrumentation.

Serenade No. 2 is dedicated to Clara Schumann, and while he was writing it, Brahms sent her manuscripts of the work to ask for her honest opinion. She replied briefly that she loved the music in almost every way and that the moments she liked less would need only minor changes. 

The end result is a most beautiful piece for small orchestra, with an intriguing orchestration in keeping with the heritage of Mozart’s best serenades.

CAMERATA SALZBURG

The CAMERATA Salzburg is one of the leading chamber orchestras worldwide. Invitations to the most prestigious venues from New York to Beijing complement the orchestra’s concert activities in their hometown, Salzburg.
The CAMERATA has been one of the core ensembles of the Salzburg Festival and Mozart Week since 1956. The subscription series of the CAMERATA in the great hall of the International Foundation Mozarteum is a pillar of Salzburg’s musical life.

At the center of the repertoire, in addition to the works of Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert is, of course, the work of the “genius loci” Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Over the years, mainly the typical “Salzburg Mozart sound” has made the CAMERATA an international ambassador and musical figurehead of the city of Salzburg.
Highlights in recent years have included appearances at the Festival de Pâques in Aix-en-Provence, the BBC Proms in London, the Enescu Festival in Bucharest, the Beijing Music Festival and the Carnegie Hall in New York. The CAMERATA has a close cooperation with the Wiener Konzerthaus and appears regularly in the Tonhalle Zurich, the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, the Kultur- und Kongresszentrum Luzern, the Prinzregententheater Munich, as well as the Cologne Philharmonie and the Philharmonie de Paris.

Personalities like Géza Anda, Sándor Végh and Sir Roger Norrington have shaped the CAMERATA sound. Musicians such as Heinz Holliger, Alfred Brendel, Philippe Herreweghe, Franz Welser-Möst, Pinchas Zukerman, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Teodor Currentzis, Matthias Goerne, Fazıl Say, Renaud Capuçon, Yuja Wang, Janine Jansen and Hélène Grimaud, among others, have been prominent partners of the CAMERATA in past years.

When Bernhard Paumgartner founded the orchestra in 1952, the artistic credo of each individual member was clear: making music on one’s own responsibility within the CAMERATA community. A maxim that the orchestra and its members live to this day. Long time mentors Bernhard Paumgartner and Sándor Végh shaped the world-famous “CAMERATA sound”. After Végh’s death, Sir Roger Norrington, as chief conductor, had a lasting influence on the orchestra. Today Sir Roger is the Director Laureate of the CAMERATA. His successors as artistic directors were Leonidas Kavakos and the French conductor Louis Langrée. Since 2016, the musicians at the CAMERATA have taken artistic direction into their own hands.

Led by their concert masters Gregory Ahss and Giovanni Guzzo as “primus inter pares,” the musicians work together to interpret sound and its subtleties, as well as the music behind the notes. In this way, even in the seventh decade of its existence, the CAMERATA maintains a “joy of playing that is contagious” (Neue Zürcher Zeitung). The CAMERATA regularly concertizes with its artistic partners Renaud Capuçon, François Leleux and Fazıl Say, along with guest conductors such as Andrew Manze, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Manfred Honeck and Ingo Metzmacher.
The CAMERATA has recorded over sixty productions for well-known labels such as Deutsche Grammophon (most recently The Messenger together with Hélène Grimaud), DECCA, Sony or Warner Classics – many of which have won important prizes -, testifying to the excellence and dedication to the music of the CAMERATA musicians.

ARABELLA STEINBACHER , violin

Celebrated worldwide as one of today’s leading soloists, Arabella Steinbacher is known for her extraordinarily varied repertoire, which comprises pinnacles of the classical and romantic eras, alongside modernist concerto works of Bartók, Berg, Britten, Glazunov, Gubaidulina, Hartmann, Hindemith, Khachaturian, Milhaud, Prokofiev, Schnittke, Shostakovich and Szymanowski.

The 2020/2021 season began with a performance with the Tonkünstler-Orchester at the Grafenegg Festival. Highlights of the season include return appearances with NHK Symphony Orchestra, Wiener Symphoniker, Orchestre National de Belgique, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, and Dresdner Philharmonie. She will further embark on a tour around Germany with the Aurora Orchestra. Also in Germany, she appears with the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln and the Kammerorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunk Symphonieorchesters. With the latter, she performs repertoire from her widely acclaimed latest album, released in June 2020, which features The Four Seasons by both Vivaldi and Piazzolla. She also gives recitals in Paris, Hamburg and Schloss Elmau, as well as around Spain and Japan.

Other orchestras Arabella Steinbacher regularly collaborates with include the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. She has performed to great acclaim with the London Symphony and Philharmonia Orchestras as well as the Orchestre National de France, ORF RadioSymphonieorchester Wien and Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra.

She works with conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Christoph von Dohnányi, Christoph Eschenbach, Lawrence Foster, Valery Gergiev, Jakub Hrůša, Marek Janowski, Vladimir Jurowski, Fabio Luisi, Zubin Mehta, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Kirill Petrenko.

Arabella Steinbacher’s discography, now at nineteen recordings, impressively demonstrates her diverse repertoire. She records exclusively for Pentatone. Her most recent recording features The Four Seasons by both Astor Piazzolla and Antonio Vivaldi—she plays and directs the Münchener Kammerorchester in it. It was released in the summer of 2020 and received rapturous reviews, The Guardian’s 5-star review ending simply with “what a player.” Her recording of Britten & Hindemith Violin Concertos with Vladimir Jurowski and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin received high critical acclaim—Gramophone Magazine commenting that “her partnership with Jurowski seems made in heaven.”

Born into a family of musicians, Steinbacher has played the violin since the age of three and studied with Ana Chumachenco at the University of Music and Theatre in Munich since she was eight. A source of musical inspiration and guidance of hers is Israeli violinist Ivry Gitlis.

Steinbacher currently plays the 1716 “Booth” Stradivarius, generously loaned by the Nippon Music Foundation.

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Horari oficina

De dimarts a dissabte de 10.00 a 13.30h

Dijous de 16.30 a 19.00

Per a reservar i comprar entrades el mateix dia del concert, de 20.30 a 22.00h