Bilthoven Klassiek

Matangi Quartet & Sunniva Skaug - Dvořák & Brahms

Bilthoven Klassiek provides a platform for both renowned artists and promising young talent. This concert brings together the Matangi Quartet with Norwegian violist Sunniva Skaug, one of the first Moving Talent Fellows. The Moving Talent Fellowship is an initiative of the International Holland Music Sessions (IHMS) in collaboration with the Matangi Quartet, through which the four musicians mentor exceptional young chamber musicians in their transition from study to a professional international career.

Sunniva Skaug is pursuing her master's degree at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo with Lars Anders Tomter, following her bachelor's degree at the Amsterdam Conservatory with Francien Schatborn and Marjolein Dispa. She has won prizes at international competitions, performed as a soloist, and participated in festivals including the Zeist Music Days, where she was mentored by the Jerusalem Quartet for two years.

In the first part of the concert, the Matangi Quartet and Sunniva Skaug perform Dvořák's String Quintet No. 3 in E-flat major, op. 97. Dvořák composed this work during his stay in the United States, where his Bohemian roots and new musical impressions converge in a colorful and melodic quintet. The scoring with two violas gives the work a warm, rich sound.

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Matangi Quartet & Ketevan Sharumashvili - Brahms

In the second part, the Matangi Quartet collaborates with pianist Ketevan Sharumashvili, also the artistic director of Bilthoven Klassiek. Together they perform Johannes Brahms' Piano Quintet in F minor, op. 34. Brahms revised the work multiple times before settling on the scoring of piano and string quartet as final. The first movement is characterized by dramatic tension and monumental energy, the slow movement by a hushed, almost intimate beauty, and the scherzo ranks among the most impressive pages Brahms ever wrote.