Australian National Academy of Music: Sublime String Quintets

How to explain Schubert’s genius when his music reveals it so readily? His string quintet is an epic of the chamber music world – visionary, long-breathed, novelistic – yet it’s also often serenely songful. It may be built to a grand design, but it can also sound miraculously spontaneous.

Schubert’s warm-hearted masterwork is that rare string quintet featuring two cellos rather than two violas. It’s bookended in this concert by a work written for the same forces; but where Schubert’s Quintet is acknowledged as one of the greatest of all chamber works, Maliszewski’s magnificent Quintet is a major rediscovery. Born in the Ukraine, Maliszewski helped found the Odessa Conservatory, which nurtured the talents of some of the 20th century’s great instrumentalists. His Quintet, impassioned and lyrical, is inflected with the folk music of his homeland – and once you’ve heard it played by ANAM musicians you’ll wonder why it’s not better known.

Lutosławski was one of Maliszewski’ students. At first, this Polish composer’s music was supressed by his Russian masters, but by the end of his life he’d become an iconic musical figure of his time. The four vignettes in this program chart the journey from his delicate dance with the authorities (‘I wrote as I was able, since I could not yet write as I wished,’ he later said) to full-blown expressive freedom.

It’s hard to imagine a greater advocate for this program than Polish violinist Jakub Jakowicz, an exemplary chamber musician, teacher and soloist.

Witold MALISZEWSKI String Quintet in D minor
Witold LUTOSŁAWSKI Subito
Witold LUTOSŁAWSKI Epitaph
Witold LUTOSŁAWSKI Bukoliki
Witold LUTOSŁAWSKI Dance Preludes
Franz SCHUBERT String Quintet

Jakub Jakowicz director/violin
ANAM Musicians

Tuesday 06 Aug 2024, 7 PM
Abbotsford Convent, Rosina Auditorium, 1 St Heliers St, ABBOTSFORD VIC
TICKETS:
A Little Extra $60.00
Standard $40.00
A Little Less $20.00