Of Strings and Alps

In early 2022, the Swiss Orchestra moved into its new home as the orchestra in residence of the Andermatt Concert Hall. Since then, the Orchestra has been responsible for the majority of Andermatt Music’s symphonic programme. The Swiss Orchestra brings back to life those Swiss symphonic works of the Classical and Romantic periods that have long remained largely unknown, combining them with well-known masterpieces of the world repertoire. In addition to its symphony concerts, smaller ensembles derived from the Swiss Orchestra can also often be heard in Andermatt, in the concert format entitled “Swiss Orchestra Soloists”.

At our concert of 6 June 2027, the first desks of the violins, violas and cellos will come together to form a string octet. Their programme will feature one work each by the Schwyz native Joachim Raff and his Leipzig friend and supporter Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Both these composers wrote a work for the relatively unusual genre of the string octet – an ensemble that is comparatively large for chamber music, but much smaller than a string orchestra. Joachim Raff was 50 years old and in the midst of his most productive phase when he composed his Octet in C major. For the first time in his life, he was able to make a living from his work as a composer. In contrast, when Mendelssohn wrote his own Octet in E-flat major, his great career was still ahead of him – for he was just 16 years old at the time. It is one of his earliest masterpieces and is regarded as a milestone in the chamber music repertoire.

The octets by both our composers feature a lively, exuberant scherzo (Raff’s second, Mendelssohn’s third movement). Raff’s begins in a scurrying, impish, bustling, brisk manner, and it’s full of energy despite its restrained dynamics (the second part of this brief movement then surprises us with an incredibly lovely tune). Mendelssohn’s scherzo also buzzes about, back and forth. His sister Fanny described it vividly: “The whole piece is played staccato and pianissimo; the occasional tremolando frissons and gently flickering mordents all come across as new and strange and are yet so appealing, so friendly. You feel so close to the world of the spirits, lifted lightly into the air – indeed, you almost feel like picking up a broomstick in order better to follow the airy band in their flight”. In this concert of the Swiss Orchestra Soloists, we can thus look forward to Raff and the young Mendelssohn taking us on an exciting musical flight in the Andermatt Concert Hall.