Brahms Sextet for Strings
August 12th, 2013 · No Comments · Posted in Arts
Music from Salem gave its final performance of the 2013 chamber music season yesterday with selections from Arensky, Skalkottas and Brahms. The organization brings world-class musicians and students together to live and rehearse over a period of weeks in a farm setting. They gave four concerts this year at Hubbard Hall in Cambridge, in addition to open rehearsals on the farm in Salem. What an asset to the community they are.
Yesterday’s program, devoted to strings, marked a rare occasion when there appeared on stage two classic cellos made and signed by Mateo Gofriller. German born, Gofriller set up shop in Venice and became one of the most revered instrument makers of the 17th and 18th centuries. But for many years his name was lost to music lovers because of the tax code in Venice. Taxes on musical instruments were so high and so rigorously enforced, Gofriller typically passed his work off under the names of makers from other jurisdictions, such as Stradivari.
This particular piece by Brahms, the Sextet for Strings in G Major, Opus 36, played by two violins, two violas and two cellos, was written after a torrid love affair between the composer, a lifelong bachelor, and a young soprano named Agathe von Siebold. She broke it off. Toward the end of this first movement of the piece, Brahms has both the first and second violins play in succession the pitches A-G-A-D-H-E (H being a German designation for B natural). Can you hear it?
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