Summerwinds Festival: PAS Ensemble: Die Welt erfreuen – Oktette
PAS Ensemble
Giovanni Guzzo Violin
Mirijam Contzen Violin
Tommaso Lonquich Clarinet
Firmian Lermer Viola
Paolo Bonomini Cello
Alberto Ayala Horn
María José García Zamora Bassoon
Roberto Carrilo-Garcia Double Bass
Two bright octets that "delight the world" (Schubert), with a top-class line-up: the PAS Ensemble unites musical personalities from around the world, who are at home as soloists, chamber and orchestral musicians on the great stages of Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The core group, Giovanni Guzzo, Mirijam Contzen, Paolo Bonomini, and Firmian Lermer, sees itself as a collective, driven by a strong, shared artistic vision. From this, PAS develops its interpretations in an equal exchange, also in changing formations with like-minded musician friends. In addition to the octets by Schubert and Françaix, PAS has Mozart's sociable-charming Horn Quintet on the program. There is joy in life full of wit and intimacy, tinged with a hint of melancholy.
Does a work express the mental state of its composer? If so, what does his sunny octet say about Franz Schubert? He composed it, with Beethoven's Divertimento Septet from 1799 in mind, in February 1824; shortly thereafter, in March, he wrote to his friend Kupelwieser: "My creations exist through the intellect for music and through my pain; those which have been produced solely by pain seem to delight the world the least." And shortly after he confessed that he felt “like the most unhappy, wretched man in the world,” whose “health never wants to become properly again” and whose “most brilliant hopes have been dashed.” By then, the 27-year-old had already overcome the first outbreak of his syphilis along with brutal therapy. Did he lift himself with his octet, a commissioned work of the experienced clarinetist and patron Ferdinand Graf Troyer, from which he naturally wanted to "delight"? Does Schubert celebrate life with his music—through pain? Only in the beautiful Adagio and in the minor intrusions of the furious finale do suffering and heaviness, longing and vulnerability surface, unexpectedly. Or do they also come through in other ways?
Irony and humor, elegance, esprit: lightness is the aesthetic program of Jean Françaix as well as his attitude towards life. A recipe for life? He wants, as he noted, to "write serious music without heaviness," music without pathos and sentimentality, "that is meant to provide pleasure"—which the 60-year-old wonderfully achieves with his octet in 1972. The clarinet chats smoothly and whimsically, the bassoon comments dryly, sometimes comically clumsy, the horn adds a noble warm color, the strings provide the motoric and harmonious foundation and engage in an intense dialogue with the woodwinds.
Die Welt erfreuen – Oktette
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791): Quintet in E-flat major, for Horn, 2 Violins, Viola, and Cello, KV 407
Jean Françaix (1912–1997): Octet for Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn, and Strings
Franz Schubert (1797–1828): Octet in F major, for Clarinet, Horn, Bassoon, and Strings, D 803
Hallo, ich bin Maya.
