Chamber Music Matinee

"Masterpieces of chamber music" is the theme of this season's chamber music matinees. The works at this matinee concert show just how different these can be. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's second piano trio stands out with its complex concept: from the character of a song without words to references to his "Summer Night Room" music in the third movement, an enormous range can be experienced. He gave it to his sister as a birthday present in 1845 and dedicated the printed version to the influential Kassel court conductor Louis Spohr. The Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich also dedicated his eighth string quartet op. 110, which is known today as "In memory of the victims of fascism and war". However, this is accompanied by another fateful note, as he himself described: "I thought about the fact that, should I die one day, hardly anyone would write a work dedicated to my memory. That's why I decided to write something like that myself." As this year marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Shostakovich – one of the most important musical voices of the 20th century – his Opus 110 deserves to be performed now in particular.

Translated with DeepL.com