Sibbe Live!: Romantic Gems
12.02.2025 19:00 – 20:00
Standard price 15€ + order fee (from 1,50 € + 0,65 % of the order)
Students/ pensioners/ children 12€ + order fee (from 1,50 € + 0,65 % of the order)
GLO Quartett: Henna Linko, piano; Hanne Lund, violin; Ilana Gothóni, viola; Laura Olli, cello
Programme:
Robert Schumann
Piano quartet E flat major op. 47
Sostenuto assai – Allegro non troppo e con molto sentimento
Scherzo – molto vivace
Andante – cantabile
Finale – vivace
Gabriel Fauré
Piano quartet no. 2 in G minor op. 45
Allegro molto moderato
Allegro molto
Adagio non troppo Allegro molto
PRESENTATION OF THE WORKS
Robert Schumann (1810-1856) was a German composer whose style represents Romanticism in perhaps its purest form. Today he is undoubtedly considered one of the great composers of the 19th century, but he was not as highly regarded in his lifetime.
Schumann’s own instrument was the piano, which he began playing at the age of seven under the direction of Johann Gottfried Kuntsch, a self-taught organist. At the age of 18, at his mother’s insistence, he began studying law and ended up as a piano pupil of Friedrich Wieck. Wieck had a daughter, Clara, whom his father trained systematically and with discipline to become a concert pianist. Robert and Clara fell in love and married, much to Wieck’s dismay. Clara became a famous concert pianist who continued her brilliant career despite bearing eight children together with Schumann. Robert’s own career as a pianist, on the other hand, came to an untimely end. This was at least partly due to hand problems, which Schumann himself aggravated by using a device to ‘strengthen’ his fingers, causing nerve damage. Clara often performed her husband’s works, which the public initially found difficult to understand. Franz Liszt also performed Schumann’s piano pieces, but again the reception was lukewarm. Later, even during Schumann’s lifetime, the compositions gradually gained the recognition they deserved, and orchestral works, for example, were performed regularly.
In addition to his career as a composer, Schumann was an accomplished music critic and journalist, with a particular passion for literature and poetry. His song series Dichterliebe (op. 48) and the Liederkreis series (op. 24 and 39) on poems by Heine and Eichendorff are among his most important works. Other well-known works include four symphonies, a piano concerto and numerous solo piano works such as the Kreisleriana, Fantasia in C major and Carnaval. Chamber music includes three piano trios and string quartets, a piano quintet (op. 44), and the Piano Quartet (op. 47), which will be heard at today’s concert. The Piano Quintet and the Piano Quartet were composed consecutively in 1842 and both also share the same key, E-flat major.
The Piano Quartet was very well received as soon as it was released. Schumann may have been inspired by Mozart’s Piano Quartet (in G minor). Schubert’s Piano Trio No. 2 is also a clear influence. The Piano Quartet consists of four movements and is texturally equally chamber-musical, unlike the Piano Quintet, where the strings form a counterpart to the piano part in the manner of a concerto arrangement. In the quartet, the equality of the instruments is clearly heard, for example, in the tranquil third movement, where a heavenly theme alternates between the player and the instrument.
Schumann’s health was frail at a young age, and he also suffered from severe mental health problems. Periods of depression regularly interrupted the composer’s creative periods, and Schumann was also repeatedly plagued by various obsessive-compulsive symptoms: he might hear strange noises or fear being poisoned. In 1854, Schumann attempted suicide by throwing himself into the Rhine, after which he was committed to a mental hospital at his own request. Schumann died in a mental hospital in 1956, aged only 46. The cause of death was probably syphilis, which had been ravaging the composer’s body for some time.
Gabriel Fauré (1845-1924) is one of the most important French composers, whose style inspired many 20th century composers. His music lies somewhere between Romantic and modern music, and his harmonic and melodic innovations had a major influence on the music of subsequent generations. When Fauré was born, Chopin was still composing, and by the time Fauré died, music was already influenced by jazz, as well as, for example, the new atonal style introduced by Schoenberg and Webern.
Fauré was born in the small town of Pamier in the south of France, the youngest of a family of six children. Gabriel was first sent to live with his foster mother, but returned to his family at the age four after his father took a job as director of a teacher training college in Montgauzy. Fauré recalls that as a child he played the harmonium in the school’s chapel, and that he was enchanted by the joy of playing, even though he knew little of the technical side of the instrument. A blind old lady heard Fauré playing, told his parents of his talent and urged them to find him a teacher. At the age of nine, Fauré began studying music in Paris at the Louis Niedermeyer School. The teaching was excellent, and the young Fauré studied not only piano but also harmony, choir conducting, composition and organ playing. After Niedermeyer’s death in 1861, Fauré took Camille Saint-Saëns as his piano teacher, who introduced him to contemporary music of the time, including Schumann, Liszt and Wagner. Saint-Saëns also became a close friend of Fauré.
After his studies, Fauré worked as an organist in several churches, gave piano lessons and continued to compose. In 1871, Fauré was appointed choirmaster and organist of the Saint-Sulpice church in Paris. In the same year, the Société Nationale de Musique was founded, of which Fauré was one of the founding members (other members included Saint-Saëns, Franck, Massenet, Bizet and Chabrier). The Society became an important forum for the presentation of Fauré’s compositions, and the premiere of the first Violin Sonata in 1877 marked an important turning point in Fauré’s career.
Fauré was appointed professor of composition at the Paris Conservatoire, and in 1896 he became its director. Fauré taught many young composers, including Maurice Ravel, Georg Enescu and Nadia Boulanger. Fauré was a well-liked teacher who did not impose his own methods, but helped his students to find their own style and musical language.
Fauré composed his second piano quartet in 1885–87, seven years after the first piano quartet. The First Piano Quartet Op. 15 in C minor had been well received, and Fauré had also been awarded the Prix Chartier for his chamber music works. Piano Quartet No. 2 op. 45 in G minor was premiered in January 1887 in Paris at a concert of the Société nationale de musique. Fauré himself was the pianist. He performed the work actively (at least 23 times) until 1914, with concerts in London, Berlin and Helsinki. The quartet was composed according to the classical four-movement structure, as was Schumann’s piano quartet. The first movement is in sonata form, the second movement is a fast scherzo (very similar in spirit to Schumann’s ‘perpetuum mobile’), the third movement is calm and melodic, and the finale is fast, furious and dramatic. Fauré himself was particularly pleased with the third movement, whose bell-like opening theme was inspired by a fragile childhood memory in Montgauzy: the young Fauré had heard the distant evening bells ringing in a nearby village.
In addition to chamber music, Fauré composed operas, orchestral music, songs, piano music and a requiem. His compositions were already highly acclaimed during his lifetime and his works were regularly performed outside France. As he grew older, his hearing deteriorated and at the age of 75 he retired as director of the Paris Conservatoire, but continued to compose. Fauré’s last composition was the String Quartet, which he completed just two months before his death in 1924.
Henna Linko is a pianist living in Turku, Finland who is involved in a wide range of musical activities. She has studied at the Turku Academy of Arts and at the Sibelius Academy, where she received her Master’s degree in 2006. His studies also included a year in France, at the Conservatoire of Lyon. Later, Henna continued her journey to Oulu, where she worked as a theatre musician at the Oulu City Theatre for over ten years. Currently, she works as a piano teacher at the Turku Conservatory and as a part-time pianist at the Turku Academy of Arts’ ballet school. Chamber music has always been Henna has always been close to her heart, and visits to the Turku City Theatre have also been a welcome addition to her work as a musician.
Hanne Lund has studied at Helsinki Conservatory, Malmö Music Academy, Turku Arts Academy and Sibelius Academy at the University of the Arts. She completed her A-level violin performance degree in Turku under Aleksander Vinnitski and holds a Master of Music degree from the Sibelius Academy, majoring in early music and playing the baroque violin.
Hanne has played the violin in the Turku, Pori and Hyvinkää City Orchestras and in the Turku and Rauma City Theatres. As a baroque violinist she has played in the Finnish Baroque Orchestra, among others.
Hanne works as a lecturer of violin at the Turku Conservatory and performs with the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, the Kuninkaantien muusikot, the Turku Early Music Society and the Salo Chamber Society. He is happy to participate in all kinds of musical projects without prejudice.
Ilana Gothóni has studied violin at the Turku Conservatory, the Sibelius Academy and the Graz Conservatory in Austria. She has been the second violin of the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra for over 20 years. In addition to the main work she loves, Ilana plays a lot of chamber music in various ensembles and is an active member of ArtSoppa and Turku Ensemble. Besides being a violinist, Ilana practices and teaches yoga and she has combined these two passions into the “soiva-Yin” yoga class concept. Ilana is currently studying violin pedagogy at Turku University of Applied Sciences, as well as viola playing.
Laura Olli has studied at the Turku Conservatory under Timo Hanhinen. She has worked as an orchestral musician in Lappeenranta, Pori and Turku. She plays chamber music in various ensembles. She has performed at the Lemi-Lappeenranta Music Festival, Nauvo Chamber Music Days and Turku Music Festival. Olli works as a cello lecturer at the Turku Conservatory of Music.