Romantic Classicists / Classical Romantics On Tour

Gstaad Menuhin Festival

Fri, 7 Aug 2026 19:30 Saanen, Kirche Steven Isserlis
Direction and Cello

Works by Beethoven, Boccherini, Mendelssohn and others

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Programme

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
Praeludium und Fuge, Hess 40/Op. 137

Luigi Boccherini (1743–1805)
Cello Concerto No. 2 in A major, G.475

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714–1788)
Cello Concerto in A major, Wq. 172

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921)
Sarabande Op. 93 No. 1 for string orchestra

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (1809–1847)
String Quintet No. 2 in B-Flat major, version for string ensemble

— Programme without interval —
Running time: approx. 1.5 hours

About the programme

Prelude and Fugue: that makes one think of Johann Sebastian Bach. But of Ludwig van Beethoven? He indeed wrote a prelude for string quintet in his older age. Its fugue remained a fragment, which Beethoven later replaced with a new fugue. And already we have a prelude with fugue, created in 1817.

Camille Saint-Saëns also looks to the past when he, in 1892, wrote several dances in the old style, like the dreamily flowing Sarabande. They were intended to complement Saint-Saëns' new edition of Marc-Antoine Charpentier's Comédie ballet, based on Molière's Le malade imaginaire.

Complement or not? Yves Gérard's catalogue of Boccherini's cello concertos lists eleven. With the Cello Concerto in A Major G 475: voilà, a twelfth! For Steven Isserlis, Artistic Partner of CAMERATA BERN and a self-confessed fan of this composer, it is clearly the best Boccherini: "distinguished and amiable", as he says.

And a second cello concerto sails through this programme. Bach's son, Carl Philipp Emanuel, is that at its finest: the orchestra, surging; the solo voice, noble, and not thrown off track for a second by the youthful exuberance of the tutti.

Youthfulness and noblesse, then—both together in Mendelssohn. In his Second String Quintet in B-Flat major, traditionally classical forms capture its effervescent fantasy. The best of both worlds.

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