RENCONTRES INÉDITES III
The exploration of music by the Russian-born American composer Igor Raykhelson continues following the success of his Quartet in 2025. This year, top chamber musicians come together to present the Piano Quintet. In the second half, Brahms’s flamboyant Piano Quartet No. 1 will be performed, featuring the extraordinary Nobuyuki Tsujii at the piano.
Programme
IGOR RAYKHELSON (1961-)
Piano Quintet
(Quentin, Bouchkov, So, Teh Engstroem, Cheng)
JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833-1897)
Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor Op. 25
(Tsujii, Saadi, Szücs, Soltani)
Concert without interval
Artist(s)
- Marc Bouchkov violin
- Yamen Saadi violin
- Paloma So violin
- Máté Szücs viola
- Blythe Teh Engstroem viola
- Bryan Cheng cello
- Kian Soltani cello
- Julien Quentin piano
- Nobuyuki Tsujii piano
Chamber music supergroup perform Brahms: Piano Quartet Op.25 IV. Rondo alla zingarese
Last year, Marc Bouchkov, Máté Szücs, Bryan Cheng and Julien Quentin enjoyed great success at the Verbier Festival with the Quartet by Igor Raykhelson, a composer whose destiny mirrored his music: highly unusual. After studying classical piano and jazz at the Leningrad Conservatory, he emigrated to the United States, where his music, praised by none other than Gramophone Magazine, is championed by performers of the calibre of Yuri Bashmet. Like Gershwin in his day, Raykhelson’s music, playful and sophisticated, intertwines the multiplicity of his heritage, between jazz and the great classical repertoire, the Old and New Worlds.
Brahms’ flamboyant First Piano Quartet combines tempestuous romanticism with an almost symphonic musical architecture. The second movement, both tender and mischievous, is based on the ‘Clara motif’, which Schumann was so fond of. Meanwhile, the exuberant Finale, inspired by gypsy music, remains one of the composer’s most famous works to this day.