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Young and stunning: The Leonkoro Quartet from Berlin with (from left) Jonathan Schwarz and Amelie Wallner (violin), Mayu Konoe (viola) and Lukas Schwarz (cello).
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At the Tölz “Prize Winners Summit” as part of the Quartettissimo concert series, six young quartets took to the stage in the Kurhaus over the past few days.
The audience went wild with the Leonkoro Ensemble from Berlin - even though not everything went as planned for the young musicians.
Bad Tölz – These four young virtuosos inspired people in a very special way: the Leonkoro Ensemble from Berlin played at the prizewinners festival of the string quartet concert series “Quartettissimo”.
Their reputation had preceded the four of them and had filled the already busy spa house with the most visitors.
That day they unintentionally showed nerves of steel.
In 2022, Jonathan Schwarz and Amelie Wallner (violin), Mayu Konoe (viola) and Lukas Schwarz (cello) were awarded first prize at two international competitions, in Bordeaux and London.
In the Tölzer Kurhaus the audience experienced this outstanding sound.
It was that in the first movement of Franz Schubert's String Quartet No. 9, the very fast, elegant lightness never seemed superficial.
The first violin always led the melody stringently, but never stood out excessively.
The viola and cello set the medium tempo of the second movement prominently, but never pushed forward.
Historical instruments from lenders
It doesn't matter what tempo: the ensemble always virtuosically kept rapid runs under control, sensitive legati tensioned all four with the greatest attention to the whole.
Added to this is the really happy harmony of their instruments, which are all historical and were made available to them by international lenders.
“Old instruments sound softer,” explained organizer Christoph Kessler.
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Thanks to the virtuosity of the four, all quartets sounded in this great tonal unity.
Schubert, the representative of Romanticism, never sounded sweet, but determined.
This clear art of interpretation was particularly effective in Janacek's work “Kreutzer Sonata”, inspired by Tolstoy's novella of the same name, in which Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata plays a role.
Opposites united in Beethoven's Razumowsky String Quartet No. 7
The modern era sounded with A tonality shimmering through trills, followed by familiar salon sounds, which were quickly replaced by a melodic and rhythmic chase.
And all of that just in the first sentence.
A beautifully sad tune, performed by the first violin and cello, then literally scratched the second violin and viola.
But the ensemble's unwavering style of playing ensured understanding for this composition.
Beethoven's Razumovsky String Quartet No. 7 was again an impetuous work with sudden pauses or abrupt changes from fortissimo to pianissimo.
The musicians' great art was to make the opposites not appear as huge interruptions, but rather as parts that belonged to each other.
And at the end of this third movement, which leads into the fourth, it happened: the C side of the cello tore.
All four briefly went backstage before cellist Schwarz could perform again with his repaired instrument.
This incident did not detract at all from the performance of the third and fourth movements.
The young ensemble demonstrated admirable strength of nerves because they had taken the train from Berlin to Munich during the day, in a completely overcrowded compartment during the strike.
The audience cheered the Leonkoro Quartet with thunderous applause.
(Birgit Botzenhart)