Our principal cellist Friedemann Ludwig is looking forward to immersing himself in the musical world of the Paris salons around 1830 in a recital with pianist Zhora Sargsyan on March 15. The program spans the musical styles cultivated there, from “sérieux” to brilliantly entertaining, and juxtaposes an imagined meeting between Frédéric Chopin and Felix Mendelssohn with the real artistic friendship with cellist Auguste Franchomme:

“It is certain that Chopin and Mendelssohn were in Paris around 1831 and visited the city's famous salons. In aristocratic circles, waltzes and pleasant melodies were more popular, but in bourgeois salons, people also listened intently to more progressive, serious music. Chopin had enjoyed success as a virtuoso, but not as a composer. He was very unhappy that he was not well received in Paris and needed money. According to one anecdote, he had already booked a ticket to America when he met Mendelssohn, who had an enormous reputation and offered him support.

We begin the concert by jumping forward in time to Mendelssohn's piano variations from 1841 and the magnificent second cello sonata from 1843. In it, his life seems to pass before our eyes, from youthful genius to the humour of “A Midsummer Night's Dream” to deep religiosity. In the second part, it is contrasted with Chopin's Cello Sonata – one of his last works, which he dedicated to his long-time cello partner Auguste Franchomme. The piano and cello are completely equal in this work. Together with the famous cellist, he also composed a ‘Grand Duo Concertant’ on themes from ‘Robert le Diable’ by Meyerbeer, the star Parisian opera composer of the era, which we play as a virtuoso finale.”

Tara Hansen is responsible for artistic production planning in the programming department. She recommends meeting up with the KHO, young violinist Ava Bahari, and up-and-coming conductor Killian Farrell on March 19 for a particularly large espresso (concert):

“I'm really looking forward to experiencing them both together. They radiate a lot of energy and vitality, which is what Ernest Chausson's intense ”Poème" for violin and orchestra needs. The piece is not played very often. Although it consists of only one movement lasting a quarter of an hour, it requires the soloistic gesture of a violin concerto and expressiveness without overdoing it. Weber's “Euryanthe” overture, which always stands a little in the shadow of the “Freischütz” overture, and a similarly rarely performed, sometimes dance-like, sometimes solemn orchestral piece by Schumann beautifully frame the almost impressionistic-sounding ‘Poème’ from 1896 with works from earlier phases of Romanticism."

Solo violist Amalia Aubert and Johannes Jahnel, concertmaster of the second violins, are members of the Konzerthaus Quartett. They are looking forward to their concert on March 27, when they will perform Haydn and Brahms as well as Leoš Janáček's Second String Quartet. Rehearsals began with a surprise—and a lesson in editing:

“I had left my Janáček part in the original version published in 2008 at my parents‘ house. It didn't arrive in the mail in time, so I made do with a printout from the music database. During rehearsal, when we compared it with the score, we realized that there is another very different version of his second string quartet,” says the violist. “Shortly before his sudden death, the composer had rehearsed with the Moravian Quartet, which had heavily edited the work. This version was in the music database.

But Janáček had already finished the piece, entitled ‘Intimate Letters,’ and dedicated it to Kamilia Stösslová, whom he adored. Originally, a viola d'amore was to replace the usual viola in it. I find this behavior by a 70-year-old man toward a much younger woman—who is also married—rather problematic. Anyway, the composer quickly replaced the viola d'amore with the viola. But it is the reason why the viola part in the original version seems unplayable at first glance, as it goes so high. However, a friend of mine, a violist in the Parker Quartet, assured me that you wouldn't want to miss this version later on. So now we're playing it.”

“And we're very excited to see the effect it will have,” adds violinist Johannes Jahnel. “It will be easier for me because the viola has everything in the score that I had to play before. Amalia has to go up into the eternal snow, and I get to relax and make beautiful music (laughs). But apart from that, the choice of tempos, for example, also seems more emotionally convincing to me. The fact that we are also playing Haydn's Emperor Quartet is particularly pleasing to Amalia, who has just obtained German citizenship in addition to her Swiss citizenship. And we violins, Sayako Kusaka and I, have long wanted to play a Brahms quartet – we are all enjoying it very much now, and hopefully the audience will too.”