Two young, tonally very different, promising quartets and an ensemble that has long been celebrated worldwide, always committed to the risk of the new, and a brilliant clarinetist created this entertaining “long night of the string quartet”, which was already planned for 2020 to mark the 60th anniversary of the Konzertdirektion Hörtnagel. Corona thwarted that. So now in 2022. In the Prince Regent Theater, which was not fully occupied, Annekatrin Hentschel led through this long night with enjoyable interviews.
From London comes the Castalian Quartet, named after the nymph Castalia, who threw herself into a spring near Delphi in front of the oppressing Apollo, whose waters have since stimulated inspiration. The “Castalians” captivated with earthy dark tones in two night chansons by Orlando Die Lasso and John Dowland. With passion they threw themselves into the despair of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy’s last quartet Op. 80 as well as in two movements from Jean Sibelius’ “Voces intimae”. In contrast, with the Vienna-based Simply Quartet, the high registers particularly shone in movements from Antonin Dvořák’s op. 105 and Mendelssohn’s op. 44, 2. Anton Webern’s “slow movement” succeeded in a haunting and tense manner. Annelien van Wauwe shone smoothly and colorfully with clarinet pieces by Igor Stravinsky and Kaija Saariaho. The famous Finnish quartet Meta 4 then unfolded a magnificent symphonic power and variety of sound. Krishna Nagaraja’s “Stringar” served as a brilliant overture. With Fanny Mendelssohn-Hensel’s great, challenging, virtuosic E flat major quartet, Meta 4 showed its mastery and ended with an intensively lived out homage to the recently deceased Finnish composer Jaako Kuusisto.
The “Simplys” and Annelien van Wauwe thanked the roaring applause for all participants with the gentle “Reverie” by Alexander Glazunov and all the strings together with Peter Tchaikovsky’s waltz from the 2nd string serenade. What a fun, stimulating, witty evening!