Chamber Music Matinee

Haydn is one of the greats of chamber music. However, his early compositions rarely receive much attention. Musicians from the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich are countering this with the "Masterpieces of chamber music" theme of this season's chamber music matinees: they are devoting themselves to Haydn's only divertimento for five string instruments, in which the talent of the almost 20-year-old can already be recognised. Together with other compositions, this marks the beginning of a long and successful career. In contrast, Johannes Brahms' second string quintet from 1890 was his last work for the time being, as he had decided not to compose any more after his string quintet – only to get back to work a year later. In his Opus 111, he had previously demonstrated that he had spent a lifetime exploring a wide variety of genres: in this chamber music work, the orchestral sound is unmistakable, so that suddenly orchestral music can be experienced in chamber music format.

Translated with DeepL.com