Concerts

About the Concert

Program:
Rudolph Simonsen: Piano Quintet
Antonin Dvořák: Piano Quintet

A pearl may shine in a royal piece of jewellery – or lie hidden in a seashell on the ocean floor.
This is a fitting image for the unusual programme at the next concert in Rudersdal Chamber Players’ Cool Concerts series.
Here you can experience one of the great masterpieces of chamber music: Dvořák’s Piano Quintet – alongside music by the little-known Danish composer and Olympic bronze medallist Rudolph Simonsen.

Dvořák’s quintet is magical, dance-like music filled with pure, euphoric beauty, spontaneity and vitality. Loved by both audiences and performers alike, it continues to be performed in concert halls around the world.

By contrast, the Danish composer Rudolph Simonsen (1889–1947) remains largely unknown today – despite being the only Danish composer ever to win an Olympic medal. This was in 1928, when composition was still an Olympic discipline. Only a few of his works have been recorded, and no documented performances of his Piano Quintet are known since its premiere in 1915.
This concert therefore offers a rare opportunity to discover a hidden treasure of Danish musical heritage.

About the Concert

Program:
Rudolph Simonsen: Piano Quintet
Antonin Dvořák: Piano Quintet

A pearl may shine in a royal piece of jewellery – or lie hidden in a seashell on the ocean floor.
This is a fitting image for the unusual programme at the next concert in Rudersdal Chamber Players’ Cool Concerts series.
Here you can experience one of the great masterpieces of chamber music: Dvořák’s Piano Quintet – alongside music by the little-known Danish composer and Olympic bronze medallist Rudolph Simonsen.

Dvořák’s quintet is magical, dance-like music filled with pure, euphoric beauty, spontaneity and vitality. Loved by both audiences and performers alike, it continues to be performed in concert halls around the world.

By contrast, the Danish composer Rudolph Simonsen (1889–1947) remains largely unknown today – despite being the only Danish composer ever to win an Olympic medal. This was in 1928, when composition was still an Olympic discipline. Only a few of his works have been recorded, and no documented performances of his Piano Quintet are known since its premiere in 1915.
This concert therefore offers a rare opportunity to discover a hidden treasure of Danish musical heritage.

About the Concert

Program:

Dick Kattenburg (1919-1944): Sonata for viola and piano
Lili Boulanger (1893-1918): D’un matin de printemps and D’un soir triste
Guillaume Lekeu (1870-1894): Piano Quartet

Young Composers’ Swan Song

They died before their 25th birthday, and their names never became household names. Yet they left behind masterpieces that already pointed toward a place in the front rank among the greatest composers—had it not all ended almost before it began.

Dick Kattenburg (1919–1944) from Amsterdam ended his days in Auschwitz, while the Parisian Lili Boulanger (1893–1918) died of tuberculosis. Guillaume Lekeu (1870–1894) from Belgium lost his life after contracting typhoid from eating ice cream.

Experience Dick Kattenburg’s Sonata for Viola and Piano, of which he only lived to complete the first movement, as well as Lili Boulanger’s A Spring Morning and A Sad Evening, among her final works. By Guillaume Lekeu, you can hear his unfinished Piano Quartet, which concludes with the strikingly beautiful slow second movement. 

Rudersdal Chamber Players have assembled the programme as a classical counterpart to “Club 27” in popular music—the almost mythical group of great rock and pop artists who died at the age of 27.

It is hard not to speculate about what we have missed because the three composers died so young. At the same time, one cannot help but be impressed by the level and maturity their works reveal.

Historian and PhD Rasmus Rosenørn will speak about youth culture during their short lifetimes, which was markedly different from today.