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The Kodály Philharmonic Orchestra’s chamber orchestra concert is conducted by the ensemble’s permanent conductor, Tibor Bényi in the synagogue on Pásti Street on 28th October from 7 p.m.
The best-known work of Franz Schubert’s chamber music oeuvre is probably the piano quintet in A major called “The Trout”. The reason for using the distinctive name was the fourth movement, which is none other than a series of variations composed on the theme of his previous song (Die Forelle). By the way, the composer also composed instrumental versions for four other songs. In his score for the Pisztárng quintet, made in 1819, Schubert does not use the usual formation of two violins, viola, accordion, and piano, but abandons the part of the second violin and enriches the bass by using the double bass. (Incidentally, one of Johann Nepomuk Hummel’s works provided a sample for this solution.) The order of movements of the nearly forty-minute work also differs from the usual one, in that the titular series of variations is added to the classic (fast-slow-dance-movement-finale) pattern almost as an extension. Incidentally, the idea for the arrangement of the song came from Sylvester Paumgartner, a wealthy amateur cellist who lived in the Upper Austrian town of Steyr, whose name has thus been preserved in music history.
Franz Schubert composed D. 803 in F major octet in the spring of 1824, in the period when two of his other important works, the accompaniment to Rosamunda and the string quartet entitled Death and Maiden, were also created. The Octet was commissioned by an Austrian count – also an amateur clarinettist – Ferdinand von Troyer. Troyer expected a chamber work from Schubert with an instrumental composition similar to Beethoven’s Septet in E flat major, in which both strings and wind instruments are included. This is important to emphasise because popular octets in the 18th century (in the so-called Harmoniemusik genre) used exclusively wind players, most often in a combination of 2 oboes, clarinets, horns and bassoons. Schubert’s work, which lasts approximately one hour, goes far beyond the genre of previously fashionable serenades and divertimentos, with a colourful mix of chamber music and symphonic sounds. The work was first performed in the living room of a Viennese apartment, mostly by the same musicians who also performed the Beethoven Septet. Incidentally, Schubert also reflected on his own works, since the theme of the first movement of the Octet comes from his song Der Wanderer, and the variations of the fourth movement are based on one of the melodies of his song play Die Freunde von Salamanka. The instrumentation largely follows Beethoven’s pattern—clarinet, horn, bassoon, violin, viola, cello, and double bass—to which Schubert even added a second violin. The six-movement structure based on the 18th-century serenade has also been preserved.
Program: Schubert: Piano Quintet in A major (“Trout”) D667 / Schubert: Octet in F major, D803
Ticket price: HUF 2,200
Date and time: October 26, 2023 7:00 p.m
Location: Pásti Street synagogue, 4 Pásti Street
Source: www.kodalykorus.hu