Concert information
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Brahms and Bruckner both shared a fondness for “Gselchtes mit Knödel” – smoked meat with dumplings – but the similarities ended there. “Bruckner’s works are not compositions, they’re a fraud,” Brahms once remarked – and the antipathy was very much mutual. All the more intriguing, then, to set the two composers side by side, as in this chamber music evening. Bruckner is represented by his tender Intermezzo, rich in Ländler rhythms, while Brahms’s String Quintet No. 2 shifts between exuberance and melancholy. Opening the programme is the effervescent String Quintet No. 2 by Felix Mendelssohn, performed by the Brahms Ensemble Berlin.
Artists
Brahms Ensemble Berlin:
Rachel Schmidt violin
Raimar Orlovsky violin
Diyang Mei viola
Julia Gartemann viola
Uladzimir Sinkevich cello
Programme
Felix Mendelssohn
String Quintet No. 2 in B flat major, op. 87
Interval
Anton Bruckner
Intermezzo in D minor
Johannes Brahms
String Quintet No. 2 in G major, op. 111
Additional information
Duration ca. 2 hours (incl. 20 minutes interval)
Chamber Music Hall
12 to 31 €
Introduction
19:30
Series Q: Ensembles of the Berliner Philharmoniker
Brahms Ensemble Berlin
Video portrait
The Brahms Ensemble Berlin in portrait
Inspired by an idea on tour, Raimar Orlovsky and Rachel Schmidt founded the Brahms Ensemble Berlin to explore Brahms’ chamber music in various formations – from string sextets to piano quartets. “The ensemble’s line-up is flexible, which opens up wonderful possibilities for the repertoire.”
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
Brahms Ensemble Berlin
Widely acclaimed for their technical excellence and deeply rooted in the Philharmonic sound culture, the Brahms Ensemble Berlin is made up of string-players from the Berliner Philharmoniker who bring their experience from the symphonic repertoire into their chamber music performances. The idea of placing Johannes Brahms’s chamber music at the centre of their programmes emerged in 2009 following a Philharmoniker concert at Carnegie Hall.
Brahms’s music has been a central part of the Philharmoniker’s repertoire since the orchestra’s founding in 1882; in its early years, the composer himself even conducted the orchestra. It was out of this tradition that the Brahms Ensemble Berlin was founded. The ensemble focusses not only on Brahms’s string sextets, quintets, and quartets, but also on his chamber works with piano as well as the late clarinet quintet. At the same time, works by other composers play an important role in the repertoire, including Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Schubert, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Robert Schumann, and Mieczysław Weinberg. The Brahms Ensemble Berlin made its debut in the Berliner Philharmoniker’s chamber concert series in April 2012 and has since enjoyed a successful international career.
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