Charity Concert I

The string quartet – that was the other Nono. He is no longer the artist of socio-critical objection, no longer the designer of fierce sound attacks, but a composer, who ventures to the edge of silence, who challenges listening through quiet tones, and the dignity of detail. A turn towards the inside? Indeed. Though not merely towards the inside of the individual, but especially into that of society, whose state is bluntly revealed in the relationships between human beings.

The Pelligrini Quartet presents works by composers, who, in their late works, broke through into a new style, and who considered anew the relation between music and listener. In this quartet Joseph Haydn puts the Kaiserhymne to the test: he leads the later Deutschlandlied through changing environments thereby questioning it, since chamber music is not the medium of songs of praise and profession. Newfound love motivated Leos Janáček to write his second string quartet. Yet, the work is more than a mere reflection of a biographical situation. It unfolds patterns of rich, concentrated and lively communication – often close to speech. In all three works, the dialogues are led in two directions: between music and its listeners and between the musicians themselves. These dialogues act as a model for and reflection of cultivated human relations.