Chamber Music Matinee

Beethoven... certainly! is the motto for the Chamber Music Matinees in this season. And so, this program – certainly! – begins with Beethoven. The extremely energetic String Trio in c-minor was composed between 1796 and 1798; Beethoven was then 26 to 28 years old, and already at that time, his hearing illness was evident, which later led to complete deafness. The same fate befell Smetana and Fauré: both became deaf, but both still wrote significant works. Among them are Smetana's folk music-inspired cycle 'From the Homeland' as well as Fauré's Piano Quintet No. 2 – which in the last movement quotes 'Dona nobis pacem' from Beethoven's 'Missa solemnis'.