Barbara Hannigan & Belcea Quartet 

The first half of the concert will feature the Belcea Quartet, which is renowned for its ability to combine flawless unity of sound and intonation with a supremely natural expression. The purely Central European programme will open with Five Movements Op. 5 by Anton Webern (1883–1945), an exceptional work which, more than a century after it was written, continues to impact audiences with its boldness, concentration of expression and enchanting eloquence. The five musical miniatures (the fourth part lasts only a few seconds) for string quartet from 1909 is a prime example of Webern’s ability to link up individual musical elements to form a crystal-clear single entity. A pioneer of so-called Klangfarbenmelodie, he creates new worlds of sound, among others, by placing all manner of technical demands on the players with the aim of exploiting the sound of the instruments and bringing out the maximum that they are capable of. The result is a composition that combines musical asceticism with elegance of line and colour, and moments of utmost tenderness with extreme intensity of sound. Webern’s specific world of sound is followed by the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791), namely one of his loveliest string quartets known as “Dissonance” for its unusual harmonic introduction. The piece is part of a collection of six quartets which the composer wrote between the years 1782–1785 and dedicated to Joseph Haydn.

In the second half of the concert the Belcea Quartet will be joined by Barbara Hannigan. They will first present the cycle Melancholie Op. 13 by German composer Paul Hindemith (1895–1963), written to verse by Christian Morgenstern. “Hindemith’s Melancholie is a score I have carried around for many years, waiting for the right moment to explore it, ever since my beloved colleague Reinbert de Leeuw told me about it,” says Hannigan, referring to the late Dutch conductor and pianist, who was her music partner for many years. “Though rarely performed, this work is heartfelt and heartbreaking. […] It’s a gem of a piece,” Hannigan adds.

“I feel air from another planet,” wrote German Symbolist poet Stefan George in a poem set to music by Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951) in String Quartet No. 2 Op. 10, which features a soprano solo in the last two movements. It was as if George were articulating a thought that Schoenberg was trying to convey in his music for the very first time – namely the desire for new, unbridled expression. Schoenberg wrote the work during an emotional time in his life, when his wife Mathilde was conducting an affair with the artist Richard Gerstl, which culminated in the latter’s suicide. The composer, himself a visual artist, also began increasingly to shape his aesthetic visions in his paintings, through which he aligned himself with the Expressionist movement. His departure from late Romantic musical thinking is symbolically reflected in the quartet via a quotation of the folk song O du lieber Augustin, alles ist hin (Oh, you dear Augustin, all is lost). “It feels like that cool, soothing, extraterrestrial breeze is gently urging us away from what we knew and loved, including harmony,” states Barbara Hannigan, poetically commenting on the piece. Schoenberg’s quartet concludes a programme of compositions which, in their day, heralded new possibilities of musical expression. Works by four visionaries of music history.