4. Chamber Music Concert

Paul Hindemith Musikalisches Blumengärtlein und Leyptziger Allerley for clarinet and double bass
Rebecca Saunders Blue and Gray for two double basses
Erwin Schulhoff Concertino for Flute Viola and double bass, WV 75
Josef Labor Piano quintet e-minor, op. 3

This concert’s focus lies on the deepest string instrument of the symphony orchestra, the double bass, which is rarely found in the classical genres of chamber music. While it enters into a dialogues with the clarinet in Paul Hindemith's humorous Miniatures, the double bass gets involved by Erwin Schulhoff with the flute and the viola in a spirited furiant – that particular Bohemian folk dance which Antonín Dvořák also liked to use. In Blue and Grey, the British composer Rebecca Saunders uses two double basses to musically capture the character of those two colours. Saunders was also inspired by Mark Rothko’s painting of the same name. The evening’s programme concludes with the romantic Piano Quintet in E minor by composer and pianist Josef Labor, who went blind as a child. On one of his many concert tours he met King George V of Hanover, who was also blind and who appointed Labor as his royal chamber pianist in 1865.