Equilibrium | Concert

Equilibrium

One of this season’s most distinguished guest artists to appear with the NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra is the renowned violin virtuoso Antje Weithaas. Last year, she was awarded the OPUS Klassik, Germany’s most prestigious prize in classical music.

Together with the orchestra, Weithaas will perform Mieczysław Wajnberg’s Concertino and lead two string quartets arranged for string orchestra. The program features late works by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Ludwig van Beethoven, both composed shortly before the composers’ deaths.

The German violinist has previously performed with the NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra, most recently in 2019. She recently recorded the complete Beethoven violin sonatas with Hungarian pianist Dénes Várjon. Critics consistently highlight her interpretative imagination, her deep respect for the integrity of the work, and above all her remarkable ability to collaborate with an orchestra while maintaining full artistic individuality. It is precisely this rare balance that promises an especially compelling concert experience.

Program overview

The evening opens with Mendelssohn’s String Quartet in F minor, completed in the final weeks of the composer’s life. Exceptionally turbulent and filled with striking dissonances, the work stands apart in his output. It is widely believed to express Mendelssohn’s devastation following the death of his sister Fanny, herself a gifted composer. Both siblings passed away in 1847.

More than a century later, Mieczysław Wajnberg completed his Concertino. A Soviet composer of Polish-Jewish origin, Wajnberg wrote this three-movement work as the most lyrical and accessible piece in the program. Despite its clarity and warmth, it was composed against the backdrop of the dramatic historical upheavals that ultimately brought the composer to Moscow.

After the intermission, the musicians will perform one of Beethoven’s legendary late quartets: the String Quartet in C-sharp minor, Op. 131. The work unfolds in seven interconnected movements, including a fugue, a tarantella-like movement, a recitative, expansive variations, an intermezzo, and a sonata-form finale. Celebrated for its groundbreaking thematic integration and structural clarity, this masterpiece offers a profound intellectual journey into a world where emotion and reason are inseparably intertwined.

Concert program

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy – String Quartet No. 6 in F minor, Op. 80 (arranged for string orchestra)

Mieczysław Wajnberg – Concertino for Violin and String Orchestra, Op. 42

Ludwig van Beethoven – String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor, Op. 131 (arranged for string orchestra)

Performers

Antje Weithaas – violin and artistic direction

NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra