19. Main Evening Concert

The G major Quartet is the first of Mozart's incomparable series that he dedicated to Haydn, a series that showcases the extraordinary possibilities of the string quartet. Here we find Mozart exulting in his ability to create such joyful music.

Schumann’s three Violin Sonatas all date from his last years in Düsseldorf. In those four years he composed no less than fifty compositions including a huge amount of chamber music for his wife Clara to perform at home with their many musical friends.The Third Sonata has a strange history as the Intermezzo and Finale began life as the 3rd and 4th movements of the FAE Sonata that Schumann, Brahms and Dietrich composed as a birthday present for their mutual friend, the violinist Joseph Joachim, whose motto was Frei aber einsam. Later Schumann wrote his own extra movements to create this unusual Sonata that was ignored for centuries as those extra movements were among the last works he created before his incarceration in the Asylum in Endenich. It was felt that his late music was in some way tainted by his mental breakdown whereas modern sensibilities are much more attuned to music on the edge.

Schumann’s last piano trio comes from a very similar place, he was at his prime as a composer but plagued with mental and physical illness. This magnificent Trio was rapturously received by Clara as original and abounding with passion. Tiberghien concludes the concert with the last work Schumann wrote, a set of variations for Clara followed by throwing himself into the Rhine such was his desperation.