born of pain
Created: 05/10/2022, 09:39 am
By: Susanne Greiner
The organizer of the chamber music series in the Old Library, Franz Lichtenstern, brought the Munich string quartet (from left) Korbinian Altenberger, Stephan Hoever, Jan Mischlich and Mathias Schessl with mezzo-soprano Julie Catherine Eggli (centre) to a top-class concert.
© ks
Landsberg - It's a library concert out of the ordinary: the Munich string quartet, which embarks on a journey through time around Schubert's fascinating string quartet in G major to Webern, Pergolesi and Purcell on Saturday evening, can take place after two years.
First violinist Anne Schoenholtz is not there because of a herniated disc.
But in Korbinian Altenberger the ensemble has found much more than a 'replacement'.
The grandiose idea of putting a 'pizza calzone' with a dough made of Purcell and Pergolesi ("Salve Regina") and a filling of Webern in front of Schubert's space, time and emotional quartet came to the co-founder of the Munich string quartet, Stephan Hoever (violin ) when he happened to hear Webern's "Pain always, Look Up", one of three short, concentrated pieces for string quartet and voice.
In the Old Library, the four string players (Mathias Schessl on the viola, Jan Mischlich is the cellist) with mezzo-soprano Julie Catherine Eggli alternate Purcell's baroque fantasies 4 to 7 with Anton Webern's sparsely slanted sound concentrates: twelve-tone music, the first notes of which give many listeners blood stuck in the veins, so great is the contrast to the rambling baroque euphony.
The genius:
Already at the second Purcell-Webern meeting, both win.
Purcell's stringency becomes clearer.
And Webern's harmonies more tangible.
Eggli's clear voice also contributes to this effect, which devotes itself perfectly to the works and the fellow musicians without gimmickry.
After the break, then Schubert's almost one-hour quartet.
When the composer composed the 'great' string quartets between 1824 and 1826 before the 'Winterreise' (in addition to the G major work 'Rosamunde' and 'Death and the Maiden' in D minor), the symphony also swelled from his pen C major – which explains the dimension of his last quartet in G major.
A quotation from a letter from 1824 helps with regard to the struggle between major and minor that permeates this work: “Imagine a person whose brightest hopes have been dashed, to whom the happiness of love and friendship offers nothing but pain at most.” When Schubert wrote these lines , he is 27, suffering from syphilis.
The G major quartet was composed two years later.
In 1828 he dies.
For Schubert, pain is the initiator of composition – even if the most painful works were not well received during his lifetime.
The quartet in G major was not performed until after his death: in 1850 in Vienna.
A year later it was printed.
And it only finds recognition at the end of the 19th century.
Which may well be due to the complexity of the quartet.
This can be heard from the very first notes: a note out of nowhere swells into a major crescendo, then the minor volte-face, with pauses that break any flow.
The first violin begins the tragic, pleading melody on a major-minor carpet of restless tremolo by the accompanists, before the cello takes over.
The Munich set strong fortepiano accents, play with pressure - that's work.
And above all passion for this work, which demands top performance, especially from the first violin and the cello.
Altenberger and Mischlich also shine in the Andante, the basis of which appears to be folksong-like, but here a folksong does not really serve as the basis.
In the Allegro, the four dance again furiously between major and minor - and quite rightly receive applause and bravos.
