Programme:
Richard Strauss: String Sextet from Capriccio, Op. 85
Frank Bridge: String Sextet in E-flat major, H. 107

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Antonín Dvořák: String Sextet in A major, Op. 48, B. 80

Despite earlier attempts by composers such as Luigi Boccherini and Louis Spohr, it was the two mid-nineteenth-century masterpieces by Johannes Brahms that truly inspired many others to begin writing for string sextet. The “meta opera” Capriccio, which addresses the relationship between words and music in opera, was Richard Strauss’s last work for the stage. The work is introduced by a sextet which is, at the same time, the first topic of conversation in the drama that follows. Frank Bridge took six years to complete his sextet, during which time the influence of Brahms gave way to French impressionism and an increased sensitivity to tonal texture. Antonín Dvořák composed his sextet in 1878 and with it demonstrated both his love of classical forms and his attachment to the folk music of his homeland. These works will be performed by Petra Kovačič, first violin of the Vienna Philharmonic, violinist Matjaž Bogataj, principal second violin of the Bavarian State Orchestra since the 2017/18 season, violist Gea Pantner Volfand, a member of Quartet Accadémia and, since 2012, the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, violist Mladen Somborac, a member of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra who collaborates regularly with other ensembles, cellist Nika Somborac, since 2011 a member of the Furiant String Quartet and a regular performer with other chamber ensembles, and cellist Primož Zalaznik, since 2018 a member of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.