Create great moments. Immediate moments. Live. On stage. As a musician, who wouldn’t want to collectively take the audience’s breath away? Electrify an entire concert hall. It can be said that the four members of the Fauré Quartet have managed to do this more than once in their more than 25-year career together. A concert during their most recent North American tour in March revealed new dimensions of experience in this regard. When they performed the famous closing scene “The Great Gate of Kyiv” from Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition”, the concert-goers in the city of Urbana/Illinois stood up. “Those were very touching moments, with great symbolic power,” says Dirk Mommertz when he reports on it.
The pianist of the Fauré Quartet was not only impressed by the tour because of this special act of solidarity with the Ukraine – the concerts in the USA and Canada were also special because, after being postponed several times, they were finally part of the original anniversary tour could take place. The Fauré Quartet, founded in 1995 at the Karlsruhe University of Music, had to cancel most of its planned performances at the age of 25 in 2020. The concert that will take place this Thursday, April 7th, in Grünwald’s August-Everding-Saal also belongs to this series. The anniversary program: three songs op. 23 by Gabriel Fauré and two piano quartets by Ernest Chausson and Robert Schumann. For Mommertz, the performance in the Isar Valley is like a home game. The 47-year-old, who is also Vice President of the Munich Music Academy, lives in Oberhaching. “It’s a stone’s throw for me.”
Mommertz, who grew up in the Odenwald, also has a long relationship with Grünwald because of his aunt who lives there, whom he often visited. “I associate it with childhood memories. For a long time, Grünwald was the only thing I knew about Munich and the surrounding area.” Well, he still appreciates the beauty of the Isar valley today and he already knows the August Everding Hall, which is praised for its good acoustics, like his three colleagues Erika Geldsetzer (violin), Sascha Frömbling (viola) and Konstantin Heidrich (violoncello). pretty good, the most recent appearance was in 2017. “It’s a special hall,” says Mommertz.
The ensemble, which celebrated its 25th anniversary during the pandemic, is now playing its anniversary program in the August Everding Hall
Unlike in the past, when people played here to a full house, the response has so far been less than ideal. There are still a number of cards. “It’s a phenomenon that you can see everywhere at the moment and it also affects the big halls,” says Mommertz. The classical music audience, who are on average no longer all that young, only hesitantly return to the concert halls. On the one hand, caution plays a role, perhaps also a bit of comfort and weaning: some subscribers currently prefer to forgo the live experience because they can’t take their usual seats anyway or would have to take special care of tickets. “The question is how do we manage to fill this gap again, how do we get people to take this step again,” said Mommertz. “It would be nice if people could go to a concert again without embarrassment and overcome this fear of others, which we have been taught to do over the past few years.” The direct sound experience is irreplaceable, as confirmed time and again by the people who now go to the concerts again.
There is little doubt that the Fauré Quartet, which is regarded as a pioneer among renowned piano quartets and has been awarded the Echo Klassik and the German Record Critics’ Prize, is capable of creating such “magical moments”. The four members have repeatedly inspired each other in their careers, realized innovative projects (e.g. played arrangements of pop songs) and apparently still get along well after almost 27 years of playing together. “Otherwise it wouldn’t work,” says Mommertz and laughs. “Each of us has implemented his life concept parallel to the quartet and we had many happy moments.” The worst years from a professional point of view were indeed the past ones shaped by the pandemic.
But now it’s time to take the virtuoso momentum with you again. The audience in Grünwald can look forward to a beautiful programme: the sensual, romantic piano quartet in A major by the Frenchman Chausson is the least well-known piece, difficult and varied. Schumann’s Piano Quartet in E flat major, on the other hand, should be more familiar to fans of classical music, especially the wonderful Andante cantabile. The work of Gabriel Fauré (1845 to 1924), who would have been 150 in the year the quartet was founded, is also vocal in every respect. His three songs op.23, which are performed by the four virtuosos, were arranged for piano quartet by the well-known Dresden arranger Dietrich Zöllner. “Fauré always has to sing,” says Mommertz. “we asked ourselves if it works without words, and it does.” Apparently so good that he promises this concert experience: “For a moment the audience is completely enchanted.”
The concert is on Thursday, April 7th, in the August-Everding-Saal, starting at 8 p.m. there are maps above www.gemeinde-gruenwald.de/kultur and at the Urban kiosk, Auf der Eierwiese 1, in Grünwald and via the Reservix ticket hotline: 01806/700 733.