LGT young soloists - chamber orchestra by Beethoven, Popper, D., Bruch, De Sarasate, Piazzolla, Da (2024/2024), Andermatt Concert Hall, Andermatt, Svizzera

The highly talented young musicians of the LGT Young Soloists are drawn from over 15 different nations. These young stars, aged between 14 and 23, are at home in the great concert halls of the world and here offer a lively potpourri from Beethoven to Piazzolla. What would musical masterpieces be without virtuosity? Hardly anyone would ever hear the five demanding works on this evening’s programme of chamber works if talented instrumentalists did not have the courage to play them, despite the high technical hurdles they present, plus a need for a full sound. The members of the LGT Young Soloists are all virtuosos. This top-class ensemble of young string players aged between 14 and 23 will perform a concert programme in Andermatt that demands nothing less than utter virtuosity. Many violinists are rightly scared of the demands made by Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Kreutzer Sonata” for Piano and Violin op. 47. It was first performed by the Afro-European violinist George Polgreen Bridgetower in 1803, though its later dedicatee, a French violinist named Rodolphe Kreutzer, shied away from the challenge and declared the work to be unplayable. As a result, not a single note of Beethoven’s sonata was ever played on Kreutzer’s violin. The work begins with four expressive bars for the solo violin, and later demands elaborate runs and difficult figurations. It is also fit to burst with strongly contrasting melodies. David Popper’s “Polonaise de concert” is focused on the cello. And it offers ample proof that its composer was considered one of the most famous virtuosos on this same instrument. This work requires a high degree of expression and sensuality, along with virtuoso playing – for the performer has to master rapid successions of broken chords and surprising octave leaps. All that’s lacking here is a similar challenge for the viola. We have found it in Max Bruch’s Romance, in which the viola presents elaborate trills, double stops and arpeggios. This delightful work was Bruch’s way of welcoming the virtuoso Willy Hess when he was appointed to a professorship in Berlin. Nor did Bruch hold back with technical challenges for his new colleague. Our concert in Andermatt closes with a work by the incredible violinist Pablo de Sarasate, who created a monument to his own outstanding abilities in the violin duo “Navarra”, and the “Gran Tango” from the pen of Astor Piazzolla, whose Argentinian passion makes the soul of the violin sing.