Early Mastery
The start of summer heralds increasing anticipation of Klosters Music. Arabella Steinbacher, Patrick Hahn and the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg make their debut at the festival on 6th August.
“What power and classically dark humour next to the airy fairy magic!”, gushes the composer Carl Reinecke about the beginning of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream op. 21. “And how the four triads at the beginning and end close the whole so uniformly that it resembles a chain ring in which not a single link should be missing.” This frequently performed work is a real stroke of genius by the 17-year-old composer in the summer of 1826. Many years later, Mendelssohn Bartholdy was commissioned to write an entire incidental score for William Shakespeare’s sensual comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which he pursued with great enthusiasm. The Wedding March contained therein is one of the best-known works of the classical period. He however left the overture, with which the concert entitled A Midsummer Night’s Dream will gently begin on 6th August 2022 at Klosters Music, unchanged in its perfection. Absolute mastery also characterises Joseph Haydn’s last symphony in D major from 1795, the so-called London. Thematic rigour meets humour and tonal refinement, high demands meet easy comprehensibility.
Great career, broad repertoire
Johannes Brahms’ Violin Concerto, on the other hand, did not go down so easily – but it is still a real masterpiece. Brahms changed the original four-movement conception into a three-movement one. The composer closely exchanged ideas with his violinist friend Joseph Joachim, who also wrote the solo cadenza for the first movement. Despite great technical challenges, this concerto is less about the glamorous emphasis of the solo part; rather, the violin is thematically linked to the orchestra. Artistic maturity is required to interpret this vast work. Arabella Steinbacher, an exceptional artist, introduces herself in Klosters with an enormously broad repertoire. The Munich native began playing the violin at the age of three, and at the age of nine was accepted into the violin class of the famous professor Ana Chumachenco, who also raised other exceptional talents such as Julia Fischer and Lisa Batiashvili. After having long had the 1716-built Stradivari Booth at her disposal for her international career, which brought her together with maestros such as Kirill Petrenko, Herbert Blomstedt and Zubin Mehta, she presents another instrument in Klosters: the 1718-built Ex Benno Walter by Antonio Stradivari, once played by the famous violinist Joseph Szigeti – the loan of a Swiss foundation.
The youngest general music director who can even compose
It is well known that one can achieve extraordinary things on the violin at a very young age. Conductors’ careers, however, usually start much later. Patrick Hahn (born 1995) is an exception in every respect. He composed his first opera at the age of twelve, which he conducted himself. His piano studies in Graz, which he began at the age of eleven, were immediately followed by conducting and composition studies. In the meantime, the affable Austrian, who also sometimes sings songs by Georg Kreisler and sets accents as a jazz pianist, has already conducted renowned orchestras such as the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonia Orchestra London. Since the beginning of the 2021/22 season, he has been General Music Director in Wuppertal, making him the youngest GMD in the German-speaking world. A few weeks ago he took over for Riccardo Minasi in the Freischütz with the Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam. Hahn will also stand in for Minasi at Klosters Music to create a special Midsummer Night’s Dream for the Klosters audience with the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg and Arabella Steinbacher: with fairy magic, violin art and tonal refinement.
More information about the programme and the ticket sale can be found here.