QUARTETTO WERTHER
SANDRO CAPPELLETTO, narrator
MENDELSSOHN: Piano Quartet No. 3 in B minor, Op. 3
BRAHMS: Piano Quartet No. 3 in C minor, Op. 60
A journey through three leading figures of Romanticism, Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Felix Mendelssohn and Johannes Brahms, connected by artistic and intellectual elective affinities. Two composers and a writer who regarded music as an essential source of knowledge and inspiration, and whose words and poetry nourished the creativity of many musicians.
Our concert begins with the story of the relationship between the very young Mendelssohn and Goethe. Mendelssohn meets the writer, plays for him and, in gratitude for what he has learned from him, dedicates his final piano quartet to Goethe.
The German writer would also become a source of inspiration for Brahms at a particularly troubled moment in the composer’s life, marked by the attempted suicide of his friend and mentor Robert Schumann and by his intense emotional relationship with Clara Schumann. It was in this context that Brahms completed his Piano Quartet, Op. 60, which he described to his friend Theodor Billroth in 1874 with an explicit reference to the protagonist of The Sorrows of Young Werther: “This quartet is an illustration of the final chapter of the man in the blue tailcoat and yellow waistcoat.”
These resonances, which gave rise to musical masterpieces that have remained close to the hearts of performers and audiences alike, inspired the project behind Quartetto Werther’s latest album, released in May 2025 by the German label Genuin.
The thoughts and voice of Sandro Cappelletto will guide the audience through this compelling artistic story, in which relationships in presentia, as between Goethe and Mendelssohn, intertwine with relationships in absentia, as in the case of Brahms and Goethe.
Photo © Ferdinando Gatta
