The Notos Quartet – Sindri Lederer (violin), Andrea Burger (viola), Philip Graham (cello) and Antonia Köster (piano) – is one of the most exciting chamber music ensembles of its generation and is always on a journey of discovery to expand its repertoire.
The piano quintet by William Walton, who was only 16 years old, falls into this category. The composer still valued it in his later years and revised it in 1973, giving him the final touches. A work that inspires in its immediacy, that has unconventional twists ready, but is able to convince in its entire structure and plays passionately with the listener’s emotions.
Early by Brahms and Mahler
Johannes Brahms does the same with his second piano quartet op. 26, which with the opening Allegro non troppo developed a monumental movement – the most powerful in his early work. At the beginning of the evening also a youthful work, which its creator, like almost all his compositions from his student days, preferred to have destroyed. But it would be a pity if Gustav Mahler’s intensely felt and highly expressive movement in A minor were no longer tangible.
Especially when a brilliant ensemble like the Notos Quartet takes on these masterpieces of their composers, who are still at the beginning of their careers, with such great commitment and intense, passionate feeling that makes every detail of the score audible. (wuss)
Tuesday chamber music at the Francisco Carolinum, Notos Quartet, May 3
Source: Nachrichten
