Himmelwärts

Interpreters

Susanne von Gutzeit . Direction & Violin
Stuttgarter Kammerorchester

Programme

Johannes Brahms
’O God, thou pious God’ from the Chorale Preludes, Op. 122 (arranged for string orchestra)

Johann Sebastian Bach
Chaconne from Partita No. 2 in D minor for solo violin, BWV 1004 (arranged for string orchestra)

Bernd Alois Zimmermann
‘... to the song of an angel’  for solo viola

Max Reger
Aria ‘O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde groß’ for string orchestra based on the chorale prelude BWV 622 by J. S. Bach

Johann Sebastian Bach
Concerto in G minor for violin, strings and basso continuo, BWV 1056R

Johannes Brahms
String Quintet in G major, Op. 111 (arranged for string orchestra)

Music between earth and eternity. Chorales and hidden echoes of sacred melodies run like a thread through the first part of this programme. Brahms' chorale prelude ‘O Gott, du frommer Gott’ and Reger's arrangement of Bach's ‘O Mensch, bewein dein Sünde groß’ let the string orchestra sing, while Bach's famous Chaconne unfolds its monumental grandeur in an orchestral version.

Zimmermann's ‘... an den Gesang eines Engels’ (To the Song of an Angel) for solo viola opens up a world of sound between melancholy and transcendence, before Bach's violin concerto, with echoes of the cantata ‘Ich steh mit einem Fuß im Grabe’ (I Stand with One Foot in the Grave), closes the spiritual arc.

But heaven is not far away: Brahms' radiant String Quintet in G major, even more colourful in its version for string orchestra, brings a cheerful, almost exuberant energy at the end – as if the gaze were turning back from the afterlife to life.