Antonín Dvořák [1841 - 1904]
String Quartet No. 12, op. 96
"American Quartet"

Béla Bartók [1881 - 1945]
Contrasts for clarinet, violin and piano

Luciano Berio [1925 - 2003]
"O King" for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano and voice

Leonard Bernstein [1918 - 1990]
Dance Suite for brass quintet

In the last Tischlerei concert of the season, the orchestra's musicians will explore the encounter between the spheres of traditional European music and various facets of American culture. One famous example is Antonín Dvořák, who not only baptised his most famous symphony ‘From the New World’, but also absorbed stylistic influences for the ‘American’ string quartet he composed shortly afterwards: pentatonic harmony and syncopated rhythms characterise the musical texture. On the other hand, Béla Bartók's ‘Contrasts’, commissioned by the clarinettist Benny Goodman in 1939, were influenced by jazz, which was still in its infancy at the time and thus helped to establish the Hungarian composer in the USA even before he emigrated a year later. With ‘O King’, Luciano Berio showed solidarity with the African-American civil rights movement. The avant-garde composer described his 1968 work as a ‘tribute to the memory of Martin Luther King’ in the dedication that precedes it. The programme also features Leonard Bernstein, one of the absolute musical greats from the world on the other side of the Atlantic.

***

The selection of works and the dramaturgical conception of the Tischlereikonzerte are in the hands of the musicians of the orchestra. They are inspired by the new productions or revivals of the opera programme to create stimulating themes and unusual programmes that are unparalleled in their musical range in Berlin.