Quartet Belcea © Maurice Haas
Jean-Guihen Queyras © Marco-Borggreve (Ausschnitt)
Tabea Zimmermann © Marco Borggreve
Belcea Quartet / Tabea Zimmermann / Queyras
Monday
6
May
2024
19:30
Mozart-Saal
Presented by
Wiener Konzerthausgesellschaft
Brahms: The string sextets
The award-winning Belcea Quartet performs two masterpieces of the chamber music repertoire together with star violist Tabea Zimmermann and exceptional cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras. Their joint recording of Brahms' string sextets was nominated for the Edison Classical Chamber Music Award in 2022 and the BBC Music Magazine Chamber Award in 2023. Brahms was one of the very first composers to write for pairs of violins, violas and cellos, paving the way for Dvořák, Tchaikovsky, Schoenberg and Korngold. His two sextets are early works, composed in 1860 and 1865 respectively. Brahms wrote to his publisher that the second sextet was »in the same joyful mood« as the first. In fact, however, the composer's life at this time was bleak: his mother died suddenly and his love affair with the soprano Agathe von Siebold failed. However, the unbroken popularity of the two sextets is reflected not least in their remarkable discography; an illustrious series that has recently been enriched by the Belcea Quartet and the two master interpreters Zimmermann and Queyras, who are friends of the composer.