Unforgettable impressions – Scherr, Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Bartók, Schumann

On the 26th of February a Jeunesse concert was taking place in the Konzerthaus Klagenfurt. Of course, the 8c music class together with Professor Pfeifer and Professor Streit, couldn’t let go of this great opportunity. The KSO Kärntner Sinfonieorchester under the conductor Alexander Soddy with the special viola soloist Rui Hashiba, performed the following program:

Hans-Jörg Scherr – Commemoration concert: 2 Szenen für Orchester aus Pace
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy – Overture to “A Midsummer Night´s Dream”, op. 61
Béla Bartók – Konzert for Viola and Orchestra, Sz. 120, BB 128
Robert Schumann – Symphony No. 4, D minor, op. 120

The composer and music teacher Hans-Jörg Scherr died after a long battle with illness at the age of 78 years. He had been a teacher at the Kärntner Landeskonservatorium since 1969 and from 1972 to 2001 he was the director. For many years he was in charge of the Kärntner Kammerchor and Musikschulwerk. At the beginning of the concert the orchestra performed 2 scenes for the orchestra out of Pace. It was a sort of a tribute to him and was performed so gratefully to be worthy of such a great composer.

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy was a pianist and composer. His music has the lightness and charm of classical music, applied to Romantic and descriptive subjects. Among his best-known works are A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1827); He was instrumental in promoting the revival of interest in J. S. Bach’s music. His music sounded very mystical but at the same time very lively and emitted happy feelings.

Béla Bartók was a Hungarian composer and his works combine folk elements with mathematical concepts of tonal and rhythmic proportion. A child prodigy, Bartók studied music at the Budapest Conservatory, later working with Zoltán Kodály in recording and transcribing the folk music of Hungary and neighboring countries. This piece has its own style and sounded completely different what we were expecting. Nevertheless it was a great piece and thanks to Rui Hashabi it turned out to be one of the masterpieces of Bartók.

The last piece was one of Robert Alexander Schumann, a great German composer and writer. One of his most attractive features is the essentially private nature of his genius. The quintessential Romantic, his personal experiences, and in particular his love for Clara, found expression in his music. His inward-looking personality is reflected in the musical cryptograms of many of his works. This composition was liked best by our class as it seemed pompous and grandiose and contributed to the wonderful ending of the concert.
To sum up, the whole 8C music class was very enthusiastic about this concert and was very happy that their professors went to this concert and enabled the students to have a great impression of the orchestra.

Jennifer Gutsche, Madelene Kühberger, 8c