Gringolts | Power | Altstaedt
Schönberg | Rihm I
Wolfgang Rihm wrote his “Musik für 3 Streicher” at the age of 25: a work that attempts to capture human experience in all its inscrutability, both precise and astonished at the same time. Ilya Gringolts, Lawrence Power and Nicolas Altstaedt will tackle this expressive composition. They will begin the evening with Arnold Schönberg’s String Trio from 1946, one of his most advanced works.
Wolfgang Rihm during a rehearsal in Paris, 2009
© akg-images / Marion Kalter
Past Dates
- Saturday, 27 August 2022
- 19:00
- Philharmonie, Berlin Chamber Music Hall
- 15 – 45
Arnold Schönberg’s String Trio is a work of expressionist extremes. Right from the start, the nightmarish introduction full of dynamic transitions characterises an unpredictable, fragmentary jumble of contrasting chromatic ideas that are juxtaposed with moments of trance-like beauty. Schönberg explained that in this work he had captured his own near-death experience, which occurred when he suffered a heart attack while working on the piece, in musical form. Ilya Gringolts – “it is barely conceivable to play the violin more expressively or uncompromisingly than Gringolts” (Süddeutsche Zeitung) – takes on Schönberg’s work “of fear, of trepidation” (Hans Heinz Stuckenschmidt), together with the world class violist Lawrence Power and the cellist Nicolas Altstaedt, who is celebrated as much for the “purity and warmth of his tone” as he is for his “impeccable rhythmic nuance” (The Australian). Following this, the three instrumentalists will present the hour-long “Musik für 3 Streicher” which Wolfgang Rihm composed at the age of 25: another boundlessly expressive work with constantly changing dynamics and full of unexpected sound effects. “My plea,” Rihm noted before the introductory Lento, “is for a music that is inscrutable, clear, convoluted and passionate: one that is precise and astonished, just as human life is.”
Concert Programme
Arnold Schönberg (1874 – 1951)
Streichtrio
for violin, viola and cello op. 45
Wolfgang Rihm (*1952)
Musik für 3 Streicher (1977)
Cast
Ilya Gringolts violin
Lawrence Power viola
Nicolas Altstaedt cello