Concert information
Info
In his expressive Second String Quartet, Arnold Schönberg processed a severe marital crisis. A soprano voice, singing texts by Stefan George and performed by Anna Prohaska, adds further intensity to the work. Schönberg’s younger contemporary Dmitri Shostakovich composed his anguished String Quartet No. 8 under the impression of the bombed city of Dresden as a protest against war and fascism. The Varian Fry Quartet’s concert opens with Mozart. During a stay at the home of a Baroque enthusiast, Mozart encountered Bach’s keyboard fugues. Fascinated by their austere beauty, he arranged some of them for string quartet.
Artists
Varian Fry Quartett:
Philipp Bohnen violin
Christoph von der Nahmer violin
Martin von der Nahmer viola
Knut Weber cello
Anna Prohaska soprano
Programme
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Fugues for four voices from Bach’s Well-tempered clavier, Part 2, K. 405
Dmitri Shostakovich
String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, op. 110
Interval
Arnold Schoenberg
String Quartet No. 2 in F sharp minor with solo soprano, op. 10
Anna Prohaska soprano
Additional information
Duration ca. 2 hours (incl. 20 minutes interval)
Dates and tickets
Chamber Music Hall
12 to 31 €
Introduction
19:30
with Janin Janke
Series Q: Ensembles of the Berliner Philharmoniker
Background
In matters large and small
The Chamber Music tradition of the Berliner Philharmoniker
Chamber music means engaging in a dialogue between equals and creating a shared artistic identity as a group. Naturally, the musicians of the Berliner Philharmoniker are passionate about this art form. Violist Julia Gartemann and cellist Knut Weber talk about their experiences.
Biography
Varian Fry Quartett
Playing chamber music is central to the work of the Berliner Philharmoniker and an integral part of the orchestra’s tradition. In the 2012/13 season, violinist Philipp Bohnen founded the Varian Fry Quartet with three colleagues. The ensemble takes its name from the American journalist and resistance figure Varian Fry, who saved, among others, Hannah Arendt, Klaus Mann, Marc Chagall and Bohuslav Martinů from the Nazis; a street near the Philharmonie bears his name.
The foundations for the group were laid in the 2007/08 season, when three of the four members, then students at the Karajan Academy, began working together as a quartet, a collaboration that would develop into the present ensemble.
Inspired by lessons with members of the famous Philharmonia Quartet – which was among the leading chamber music ensembles of the Berliner Philharmoniker until 2018 – they developed the desire to form a permanent string quartet of their own. “In a quartet, each musician carries a different kind of musical responsibility from in the orchestra – it makes the music-making more active and agile,” says Philipp Bohnen. “We bring that energy with us back into the orchestra. And conversely, we benefit as chamber musicians from the sound ideas we develop in the orchestra.” In April 2013, the Varian Fry Quartet gave its first public concert at the Easter Festival in Baden-Baden – to great success. The ensemble now performs throughout Germany and internationally; it has appeared in Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Luxembourg, Shanghai, and Japan.
Anna Prohaska
“One could lose oneself completely in the sound of her naturally flowing, lyrical soprano. Yet its beauty is, in the best sense, only a secondary aspect of Prohaska’s compelling artistry,” wrote the Hamburger Abendblatt. Anna Prohaska descends on her father’s side from a long-established Viennese musical family and was born in Neu‑Ulm. From the age of six she grew up in Vienna’s Hietzing district, in the villa where Johann Strauss composed Die Fledermaus. She studied at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin and made her debut at the Komische Oper Berlin at the age of 18. At 20, she first appeared at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, where she was an ensemble member for several years and with which she remains closely associated despite her international career.
The soprano, celebrated for her silvery timbre and stylistic range, appears regularly at the world’s leading opera houses and concert halls. Her repertoire ranges from Monteverdi to world premieres, and she collaborates with conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Philippe Jordan, and Sir Simon Rattle, as well as with orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.“What matters most is staying true to your own idea of sound,” says the coloratura soprano, on the differing demands of styles and collaborators.
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