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RENCONTRES INÉDITES II
Saint-Saëns, Schumann
Over the last ten years, the Verbier Festival has showcased talents as varied as Daniel Lozakovitch, Sheku Kanneh-Mason and Timothy Ridout. We have brought together 9 of them for this second episode of our ‘Rencontres Inédites’, combining Schumann's Quintet with that of Saint-Saëns.
Programme
CAMILLE SAINT-SAËNS (1835 – 1921)
Piano Quintet in A minor Op. 14
(Fujita, Dalene, Horn, Ridout, Kanneh-Mason)
Interval
ROBERT SCHUMANN (1810-1856)
Piano Quintet in E-flat major Op. 44
(Fujita, Lozakovich, Bouchkov, Teh Engstroem, Mäkelä)
Distribution
- Marc Bouchkov violin
- Johan Dalene violin
- Amanda Håøy Horn violin
- Daniel Lozakovich violin
- Blythe Teh Engstroem viola
- Timothy Ridout viola
- Sheku Kanneh-Mason cello
- Klaus Mäkelä cello
- Mao Fujita piano
When he was just 20 years old, Camille Saint-Saëns composed his first major chamber music score: the Piano Quintet Op.14. Composed well before Franck’s famous Quintet, which would pave the way for the revival of French chamber music, Saint-Saëns’ work is a happy precursor. From Mendelssohn, he drew the bubbling energy; from Beethoven, he drew the intelligence of the rythm. These will be the only borrowings that the future composer of Carnival of the Animals will make from his illustrious Germanic elders, so much so that the work finds its own vein through the dramatic character of its melodies and the lilting colours of its writing for strings.
Schumann’s Quintet, on the other hand, oscillates between heroic tuttis and undulating cantilenas. The first movement opens with four proudly declaimed chords, before a melody that Schubert would not have disowned blossoms. The slow movement, resembling a funeral march, gives the viola pride of place, while the Finale brings the timbres into dialogue before uniting them in a chorus full of joyous fervour. To serve these two masterpieces, the Verbier Festival has brought together the elegance of Daniel Lozakovitch, the generous sonority of Klaus Mäkelä and Timothy Ridout, the mischievous intelligence of Johan Dalene and Mao Fujita, and Amanda Håøy Horn and Blythe Teh Engstroem, whose virtuosity and chamber music spirit need no further proof.