100. Main Evening Concert

If you are looking for unusual repertoire, then Hindemith is your man. Des Todes Tod is a wonderful example. It is exactly a100 years since its premiere in Berlin for the exotic line-up of mezzo, two violas and two cellos reminiscing on Holbein’s famous danse macabre woodcuts. Weinberg’s 13th dates from 1977, two years after the death of Shostakovich, whose ghost haunts this quartet. Beauty and sadness mix with howls of pain and shocked silences. Weinberg’s 14th is in 5 short movements again played without a break. After an assertive opening movement and an extraordinarily beautiful slow movement, the composer seems to lose his way until the finale opens up the possibility of a sense of purpose. The ending however is typically inscrutable.