Composer: Jake Heggie, Felix Mendelssohn, Franz Peter Schubert
Performer: Daniel Hope, Sasha Cooke, Sean Mori, Kay Stern, Dawn Harms, Patricia Heller, Emil Miland
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Pentatone
Catalogue: PTC5186879
Release: 2021
Size: 1.18 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Heggie: Intonations (Songs from the Violins of Hope)
01.No. 1, Ashes
02. No. 2, Exile
03. No. 3, Concert
04. No. 4, Motele
05. No. 5, Feivel
06. No. 6, Lament
07. No. 7, Liberation
Schubert: String Quartet No. 12 in C minor, D703 ‘Quartettsatz’
08. I. Allegro assai
Mendelssohn: String Quartet No. 6 in F minor, Op. 80
09. I. Allegro vivace assai
10. II. Allegro assai
11. III. Adagio
12. IV. Finale. Allegro molto
“Violins of Hope” presents instruments that were owned by Jewish musicians before and during the Holocaust, representing strength and optimism for the future during mankind’s darkest hour. They have been refurbished by luthiers Amnon and Avshalom Weinstein, founders of the “Violins of Hope” project.
On this album, recorded live at Kohl Mansion, the instruments are used to perform two string quartet masterpieces by Schubert and Mendelssohn, alongside a new composition by Jake Heggie, inspired by the violins’ histories. Schubert’s unfinished Quartettsatz is often considered Schubert’s first mature work, and displays a typically Schubertian mix of impetuous agitation and sublime lyricism. Mendelssohn wrote his Quartet in F Minor as a “Requiem” for his deceased sister Fanny, not knowing that – tragically enough – he would follow her fate only two months later, at the age of 38.
These two captivating works are performed by Kay Stern, Dawn Harms, Patricia Heller and Emil Miland, who join forces with mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, violinist Daniel Hope and the young violin talent Sean Mori on Heggie’s Intonations. The recording took place in the context of Holocaust Memorial Day 2020.