AUF ZU NEUEN UFERN! 2. Kammerkonzert

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART
String Quartet No. 19 in C Major, K. 465, “Dissonance Quartet”

ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK
String Quartet in F Major, Op. 96, “American Quartet”

Off to new horizons! –with two masterpieces of the string quartet repertoire: When Antonín Dvořák first set foot on American soil in 1892, he was immediately inspired by his new surroundings. During his three-year stay, he composed some of his most significant and beloved works here. In addition to the Symphony No. 9, “From the New World,” these include the String Quartet in F Major, Op. 96, which he completed in just two weeks in Spilville, a small town in Iowa. The work reflects the impressions that the New World made on Dvořák, a European.
Over a hundred years earlier, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart also broke new musical ground in his own unique way with his String Quartet No. 19 in C Major, K. 465. The so-called “Dissonance Quartet” astonished listeners with its boldly structured, harmonically daring opening. Chromatic suspensions and the shifting between major and minor keys build the tension to such an extent that some contemporaries even believed there were errors in the notation.