Fauré Quartett & Annette Dasch - After Hours (2024)

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Fauré Quartett & Annette Dasch - After Hours (2024)

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"After Hours" is the new concept album by the Fauré Quartet. The world-famous piano quartet has consisted of the same members since it was founded in 1995. They present an album full of encores by composers such as Debussy, Strauss and Dvorák. These pieces are complemented by original compositions dedicated to the ensemble by composer friends such as Jarkko Riihimäki. Two other friends, clarinettist Matthias Schorn and soprano Annette Dasch, perform as soloists. Encores defy convention and have the potential to surprise and captivate listeners in a special way. And that is exactly what this album does.

"Dessert as the main course – with “After Hours” the Fauré Quartet presents a collection of very personal encores

Encores are to a concert like a dessert to a multi-course meal: there is always room for them, it is the crowning finale, the “icing on the cake”. The four musicians of the Fauré Quartet - Erika Geldsetzer (violin), Sascha Frömbling (viola), Konstantin Heidrich (cello) and Dirk Mommertz (piano) - are notorious for their entertaining and perfectly tailored encores that go beyond the classical canon of the piano quartet -Occupation. If

Arrangement or original composition: On “After Hours” the Berlin uartett brings together a multitude of companions – musicians, arrangers and composers alike – to pay homage to the moment after the concert.

The quartet describes their love of encores with the words: “The encore can be counterpoint, redemption, relativization, can irritate, amuse and give the audience a catchy tune to take home that will be remembered for days. Actually, the encore is what people often remember as the actual special feature.”

The four musicians reconsidered and expanded their relationship to the encore. Breaking up classical concert routines, jam sessions with colleagues, and confronting the familiar with the spontaneous have been constant companions for the Fauré Quartet ever since. This is also reflected in the five-movement core work of “After Hours”, Jarkko Riihimäki’s “The Last 11 Years”, in which Matthias Schorn took on the clarinet part. Riihimäki, the Finnish universal artist living in Berlin and a long-time friend of the ensemble, sees himself as a researcher who uses the possibilities of music to investigate the secrets of emotion and humanity.

As the second guest, Annette Dasch expands the spectrum of timbres and styles with Weills

“Youkali”, “Glücklich am Morgen” by Eduard Künneke and the song “Sometimes I’m happy” by Vincent Youmans.

Other musical companions include Alexandre Tansman and his “Symphony

Concertante for piano quartet and orchestra,” which was premiered by the ensemble in 2008; his “Scherzino” comes from his “Suite Divertissement” as a tribute to the collaboration. The “Faurétango” was composed two decades ago especially for the quartet by Eduardo Hubert. Fritz Kreisler's Dvořák arrangement “Songs My Mother Taught Me” was reworked by the ensemble for the peculiarity of the piano quartet line-up. Richard Strauss's “Ständchen” appears far less meaningful than in many of his works, and Claude Debussy's “Clair de Lune” bridges the gap between the usual concert repertoire."