Pedro Halffter and the Carmen Thyssen Quartet

Concert

The Museo Picasso Málaga Auditorium will be home to the 16th edition of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Málaga (OFM) cycle of chamber music concerts. With the intimate sound of this type of format, the programme covers different facets embraced by the universal and global nature of OFM’s music.

With a taste of bolero and a touch of jazz, a wealth of tradition joins fresh creations, including links to the work of Pablo Picasso to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the artist’s death. The concert programme runs from autumn 2022 to spring 2023.

Violins: Cecilia Blanes and Marta Chico
Viola: Paula Sedeño
Cello: Laura Ramírez

On November 15, in the MPM Auditorium, compositions for piano and string instruments by Beethoven and Pedro Halffter, artistic director of the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville, will be the focus of the third concert in the 16th OFM Chamber Music Series. The concert will be performed by the Carmen Thyssen Quartet and Halffter himself. The programme will begin with Quartet No. 1 in F minor, Op. 18, No. 1, Beethoven’s first string quartet, followed by the Quintet for Piano and String Quartet. Salvador Dalí’s Homage to Ludwig van Beethoven, by Pedro Halffter, will be the highlight of the second part of the recital.

The first part of the concert features Quartet No. 1 in F minor, op. 18, No. 1 by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827), the German composer’s first string quartet. Beethoven dedicated the original version to his friend Carl Amenda as ‘a memory of our friendship’ when Amenda left Vienna unexpectedly to return to his native Kurland after a relative was taken ill. The composition is notable for the melancholy of the second movement, for which Beethoven drew inspiration from the crypt of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The first edition of the score was printed in 1829, two years after the composer died.

The Quintet for Piano and String Quartet. Salvador Dalí’s Homage to Ludwig van Beethoven, by Pedro Halffter Caro (1971), is the focus of the second part of the recital. First performed at the Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck (Germany) in 2020, this piece is inspired by the portrait Dalí made of Beethoven and was commissioned for the Beethoven 2020 commemorations.

Artistic director of the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville, Pedro Halffter Caro was previously guest conductor of the Nürnberger Symphoniker, as well as chief conductor of the Bayreuth Festival Youth Orchestra, artistic director and chief conductor of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Gran Canaria and artistic director of the Royal Symphony Orchestra of Seville. He has conducted on prestigious stages and recorded more than twenty works as a composer.

The Carmen Thyssen Quartet is made up of Cecilia Blanes and Marta Chico (violins), Paula Sedeño (viola) and Laura Ramírez (cello). This group of four young musicians is the result of a collaboration agreement between the Museo Carmen Thyssen Málaga and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Málaga.

Program

I
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 – 1827)
Quartet n.º 1 in F minor, op. 18, n.º 1

II
Pedro Halffter Caro (1971)
Quintet for piano and string quartet. Salvador Dalí’s tribute to Ludwig van Beethoven