UPCOMING CONCERTS & EVENTS

Program 4

 OFJ Ensembles

Quintet for Piano and Winds, Op. 16 | LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN
Octet | FRANZ SCHUBERT 

We begin Program 4 with the Beethoven Quintet for Piano and Winds, Op. 16. 

Twenty-six-year-old Ludwig van Beethoven had yet to publish a symphony.  Still working in the long shadows of Mozart and his own teacher, Franz Josef Haydn, he was primarily famous for his dexterity at the keyboard and his ingenious piano improvisations--although he had already written piano sonatas and trios for violin, cello, and piano, a theatrical work, and two piano concertos that he had premiered but not yet published. 

What better way to further explore instrumental sonorities and get ready to write symphonies, than to compose a quintet for Piano and Winds, as Mozart had in the not-too-distant past? Beethoven began working on his Opus 16, still mostly following Mozart’s and Haydn’s examples in the woodwind writing but expressing his own, much more forceful personality in the piano part. 

The three movements of Beethoven´s Quintet for Piano and Winds, Op. 16 show the complexity of moods and characters that Beethoven was capable of expressing.  From the very serious introduction of the first movement to the lyrical interchanges of the second movement, to the rollicking hunting-themed Rondo in the third movement, we will experience a great many of Beethoven´s signature dramatic contrasts in the expert interpretation of five of the OFJ´s finest players.

Our program continues with the Octet by Franz Schubert, his largest and most ambitious chamber work, with a structure derived from the eighteenth century Serenades. Schubert innovated by incorporating a theme from one of his own Lieder (the song Der Wanderer) in the first movement and infusing the entire work (six movements in all) with abundant lyricism. 

Schubert’s Lieder, (more than six hundred such songs composed during his short lifetime), featured poetry by some of Germany’s greatest authors and were performed at intimate house soirees in Vienna, organized by the composer and his friends.  These lively musical/literary get-togethers were called “Schubertiade”. 

We can now enjoy our very own “Schubertiad” right here at the Teatro Degollado in Guadalajara, where eight wonderful musicians from our own Orquesta Filarmónica de Jalisco bring Schubert’s ideas and emotions to life.

Thursday, October 28th, 8:30 PM
Sunday, October 31st, 12:30 PM
Third Orchestra Season 2021, Teatro Degollado

*Tickets ranging from $90 to $250 pesos, available at the Teatro Degollado Box Office and through the Ticketmaster system.