The evening at the Auditorium Parco della Musica, part of the Santa Cecilia Chamber Music Season, features violinist Joshua Bell, an international talent - and artist in residence for the current season -, clarinetist Alessandro Carbonare, as soloist, and the musicians of the Santa Cecilia Orchestra for an evening of great chamber music, with two masterpieces of chamber music literature: the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings op. 115 by Johannes Brahms and the Octet for Strings in E flat major, op. 20 by Felix Mendelssohn Bartoldi.
Composed in the summer of 1891, with the invaluable collaboration of the clarinetist Richard Mühlfeld, and performed in Berlin in December of the same year, Brahms’ Quintet for Clarinet and Strings Op. 115 brings out the expressive characteristics of the instrument to the fullest, the sounds of which blend harmoniously with those of the strings; it is therefore not surprising that the piece, characterised by a dense contrapuntal dialogue, together with a delicate melancholy, immediately became one of the highest compositions in the chamber music field. The score, written for clarinet, two violins, viola and cello, is divided into four movements: Allegro; Adagio; Andantino; Finale: Con moto, un poco meno mosso.
The Octet for Strings in E flat major op. 20, composed in 1825 when he was sixteen years old, can be considered one of the peaks of Mendelssohn's youthful production and is divided into four movements: Allegro moderato ma con fuoco, Andante, Scherzo, allegro leggerissimo, Presto. The composition, characterized by an unusual instrumental ensemble - four violins, two violas, two cellos - which had no precedents in that period, has a complex, almost symphonic writing, together with a cyclical structure, with themes that frequently repeat themselves or derive from one another.
Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia.
Photo credits: courtesy of the Auditorium Parco della Musica official site
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Lunedì 17 marzo 2025 alle ore 20.30
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