As part of the corona-related #kleinePauseMozart of the Mozarteum Foundation, the musical couple Ariane Haering & Benjamin Schmid present a varied and virtuoso programme with works by Mozart, Franz Schubert and Fritz Kreisler in their concert called “THE VIENNA RECITAL”.

The concert by Salzburg violinist Benjamin Schmid and his wife, the internationally renowned pianist Ariane Haering, begins with Mozart’s three-movement Sonata KV 306. Mozart’s only sonata with a written-out cadenza for both instruments, which suggests an orchestral background. It was supposedly conceived as a double concerto. The third movement is entitled “with Tempo di Menuetto”. The famous musicologist Alfred Einstein described this third movement as a “balm to a sore soul”. It is “unique in its kind”, not only among Mozart’s contemporaries, but also among all his descendants. Many people could probably do with a “balm for a sore soul” at the moment.

The Bohemian Paganini

This is followed by Schubert’s Fantasy in C Major D 934. Franz Schubert was inspired to write his most virtuoso violin works by an exorbitant violinist, the “Bohemian Paganini” Josef Slawik. At the premiere in 1828, the hall emptied. For the work was too unusual for ears of the time, today it is recognised as a masterpiece. Both works are central pieces in the repertoire of the duo Schmid/Haering, who have already been described as the dream team of classical music.

The second part then features works by Fritz Kreisler, the Viennese violinist-composer. They culminate in the “Viennese Rhapsodic Fantasietta”. In Fritz Kreisler’s last composition, written in 1941 and 1942, he looks back from New York to the Vienna of his childhood and youth. Vienna at this time is being reduced to rubble under the bombs of the Second World War. This is truly ingenious in its artful Viennese fantasy. This work by Fritz Kreisler has always been of great concern to Benjamin Schmid in particular.

The Mozarteum Foundation has received this previously unpublished “The Vienna Recital” from the Great Hall from the pair of musicians. It is making it available exclusively online until 17 May 2020 as part of the corona-related #kleinepausemozart.

The Salzburg Mozarteum Foundation