The Queen was not amused – an ode to gallows humour

Queen Victoria was not known for her sense of humour, and the famous saying «We are not amused» in response to someone unsuccessfully trying to tell a joke in her presence is often attributed to her. Regardless of the special case of the Queen herself, the British have often proved that laughing instead of crying is a perfectly legitimate and effective survival strategy. The Viennese are also famous for their morbid sense of humour: both Mozart's and Joseph Haydn's music is full of wit and ambiguity. Jürg Wyttenbach from Bern was certainly the Swiss champion in this field, and Winkelman learned from him. Their two works, the breakneck Praelu-Duell and the string quartet Papa Haydn's Parrot about Haydn's Bird Quartet, are prime examples of this. Wyttenbach's subversive settings of poems for a violinist follows a brief intermezzo: Mozart's duos for natural horns. These highly virtuosic and risky pieces promise many an amusing – perhaps unintentional – element. By contrast, we find intentional, brilliantly staged musical wit in his Musikalischer Spass, which he wrote shortly after the death of his father. What a fitting homage to perhaps the best (and arguably the strictest) music teacher of this era. And perhaps there really is humour here, born of the unbearable.

With

N.N. (natural horns); Helena Winkelman, Tom Hankey (violin); Alessanrdro D'Amico (viola); Christoph Dangel (cello), Stefan Preyer (double bass); Stefka Perifanova (piano).

Program

Jürg Wyttenbach (1935-2021): From «On Cheating the Fiddler» «5 little poems for a singing violinist», Text: Dorothy Parker

W. A. Mozart (1756-1791): From: «12 Duos for two horns» No 1 and No 8

Jürg Wyttenbach (1935-2021): «Amphigouri, Discours burlesque (et obscène)» for Horn Solo (2007)

W. A. Mozart (1756-1791): Piano quartet in E flat major KV 493 (1786)

W. A. Mozart (1756-1791): «Musikalischer Spass oder Dorfmusikantensextett» KV 522, for 2 horns, violin, viola, double bass (1787)

Joseph Haydn (1732-1809): From ‘String Quartet op. 33 no. 3’ (Bird Quartet), 4th movement Rondo, Presto (1781)

Helena Winkelman (*1974): «Papa Haydn's Parrot» for string quartet (2015)

Helena Winkelman (*1974): «Praelu-Duell» for two violinists in tails (2003)

Info

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Duration

120 minutes, with break

Links

→ camerata-variabile.ch