With the onset of darkness, a very special time begins in which the usual coordinates of our perception shift. With its second season program, the Mondrian Ensemble with guests Daniel Meller (vilin) and Robin Adams (baritone) is dedicating itself to the wondrous hours between dusk and dawn and, on its nightly foray, is highlighting music from three language regions of Switzerland.
In addition to the Notturno op. 47 for low voice and string quartet by Othmar Schoeck (1886-1957), the program includes the rarely played string trio by Frank Martin (1890-1974) and the premiere of the second-string trio "Songs of the Morning" by the Ticino composer Nadir Vassena (*1970), composed especially for this program.
The centerpiece of the program is the Notturno, one of the most personal works by Schoeck. It was written between 1931 and 1933 and served as a personal confession after an unhappy extramarital love affair. The five movements set verses by the Austrian poet Nikolaus Lenau and the Swiss writer Gottfried Keller to music. Late Romanticism, Expressionism, and modernism combine to create a very unique tone that sheds an exciting light on Schoeck’s artistic preoccupation with the dark depths of human existence. With a playing time of around 45 minutes, the Notturno takes up an unusual space, at least for a chamber music piece. Schoeck's biographer Chris Walton writes that Alban Berg had words of praise for the Notturno. The work was premiered in 1933, but then went almost unnoticed for years until Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and the Juilliard String Quartet performed it again in 1967.
Tickets are CHF 10-30 and free for youths and students.

Website
mondrianensemble.ch/notturno/

Where
Don Bosco Basel
Waldenburgerstrasse 34
4052 Basel

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