Performers:

• Teresa Katarina, violin
• Borys Koblyk, violin
• Maksym Semeniuk, viola
• Olena Humeniuk, cello
• Daniil Hryshyn, double bass
• Yeva-Evelina Kulykovska, piano

Program:

• Josef Labor. Quintet for Strings and Piano in B minor, Op. 3
• Felix Weingartner. Sextet for Piano and Strings, Op. 33

There is a belief that closing your eyes can enhance the sense of smell – the absence of one sense sharpens the others. A childhood illness plunged Czech composer Josef Labor into complete darkness when he was only three years old. Sensitive to the world around him, the boy turned his attention entirely to studying the sounds around him, quickly discovering his musical talents. Thus, Labor found his way to the Conservatory of the Society of Friends of Music in Vienna, and later to fame as one of the city’s leading organists. In 1886, Labor completed his Quintet for Strings and Piano in B minor, with particular attention paid to the double bass part, as the piece was written in tribute to the talent of double bassist Franz Simandl. The exquisite double bass solos penetrate the musical texture of the Quintet like rays of light in the shadows.

The evening will be complemented by the Sextet for Piano and Strings by Labor’s younger contemporary, Felix Weingartner, a successful Viennese conductor, interpreter of all of Beethoven’s symphonies, and director of the Vienna State Opera. In both his music and life, Weingartner was a dynamic combination of nearly all the iconic figures of late 19th-century Viennese music: the echoes of Strauss’ waltzes and Schubert’s songs met the search for a new compositional language, waiting to emerge in the Austrian capital. Ultimately, a connoisseur of symphonic and operatic music, Weingartner could not have written modestly, for the world around him resonated and captivated, urging a response.