Chamber Concert

Programme

Michael Haydn
Quartet for English horn, Violin, Cello and Bass C Major, P 115

Gioacchino Rossini
Duetto in D Major for Cello und Double Bass „Al suo amico Salomons“

Jean Françaix
Quartet for English Horn, Violin, Viola and Cello, op. 2

Tobias Vogelmann, English Horn

Thomas Reif, Violin

Alice Marie Weber, Viola

Uta Zenke-Vogelmann, Cello

Alexandra Scott, Double Bass

about the programme

Two things about this evening are especially tantalising: the solo appearances of English horn and double bass (instruments rarely heard in chamber music), and music guaranteed to raise the spirits, namely, Musique sérieuse sans gravité  (Serious music without weight). This was the artistic motto of Jean Françaix, and it might well stand as the motto for the entire programme. Michael Haydn’s quartet is still beholden to the divertimento tradition of Viennese classicism; Rossini’s duet of 1824 exudes the spirit of opera buffa; and Françaix, in his piece of 1970, irresistibly combines a bubbly jeu d’esprit with delicate, introverted cantabile. What the pieces all have in common is a lively concertante dialogue amongst the instruments.