Chamber Music with Roberto González-Monjas

Description

On this early summer June evening, the ensemble of the Musikkollegium Winterthur, led by Roberto González-Monjas, will take you into the world of French chamber music. After decades of rather modest existence, this music experienced a new bloom following the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71 – composers like Camille Saint-Saëns and Vincent d’Indy sought emancipation from German models such as the piano quartets of Mendelssohn, Schumann, or Brahms. Saint-Saëns’ piano quartet, premiered in 1875 at the Société nationale de musique, was a clear call to young composer colleagues to counter the “Musique germanique” with something equivalent in one of its domains. Gabriel Fauré responded to this appeal and began writing his first piano quartet just a year later. The result is something quite unique; a work that is at once spontaneous and graceful, never extreme but full of enormous tension, assertive yet always elegant, melancholic but not depressive.

Maurice Ravel devoted himself entirely to an aesthetic of sound. His ten-minute occasional piece “Introduction et Allegro” is a masterpiece of instrumentation. The peculiar scoring for a septet with the harp at the center suggests an orchestral richness of sound, which also includes the typically Spanish exoticism so characteristic of Ravel. The third French work is also the most famous: Paul Dukas’ setting of Goethe’s “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” gained great fame beyond the concert hall, especially through its use in Walt Disney’s “Fantasia.” With the central motif of the work, the flood of water unleashed by the apprentice, there is also a connection to Toru Takemitsu’s “Toward the Sea”: the impressionistic sound poem commissioned by Greenpeace for the “Save the Whales” campaign is a tribute “to the sea that creates all things.”

Program:
Maurice Ravel - “Introduction et Allegro” for harp, flute, clarinet, and string quartet
Gabriel Fauré - Piano Quartet No. 1 in C minor, Op. 15
- INTERMISSION -
Paul Dukas - “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” arranged for chamber ensemble by Ian Farrington
Tōru Takemitsu - “Toward the Sea III” for alto flute and harp
Olli Mustonen - Nonetto II

Violin:
Roberto González-Monjas
Rahel Cunz
Bastian Loewe
Francesco Sica
Beata Checko-Zimmermann

Violin:
Rustem Monasypov

Viola:
Jürg Dähler
Ivona Krapikaite
Giulietta Mariani

Cello:
Flurin Cuonz
Milena Marena
Anikó Illényi

Double Bass:
Egmont Rath
Josef Gilgenreiner

Flute:
Dimitri Vecchi
Nolwenn Bargin

Clarinet:
Sérgio Pires
Armon Stecher

Harp:
Selina Cuonz

Piano:
Dominic Chamot

Highlights

• Chamber music with Roberto González-Monjas
• Works by Saint-Saëns, Fauré, Ravel, and Dukas
• Performance at Stadthaus Winterthur

General Information

The concert takes place at Stadthaus Winterthur and presents French chamber music from the late 19th century. The ensemble of the Musikkollegium Winterthur performs works by well-known composers such as Saint-Saëns, Fauré, Ravel, and Dukas, under the direction of Roberto González-Monjas.

Location

Stadthausstrasse 4a, 8400 Winterthur, Schweiz

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