Tenerife Viola Masterclass Ensemble

The Auditorio de Tenerife hosts a concert by the Tenerife Viola Masterclass Ensemble, which concludes the programme of the festival of the same name.

At 6:30 p.m., there will be a concert presentation by Juana María Bolaños Polegre, a student of the Department of Musicology of the Higher Conservatory of Music of the Canary Islands. This introduction to the programme is free until full capacity is reached. It will take place on the Sala Avenida, next to the Chamber Hall.

This programme is a repertoire devoted to what is commonly known as the “viola quintet”, formed by two violins, two violas and a cello.

To this end, we will have Marco Rizzi, the winner of prestigious international competitions such as the Tchaikovsky and Queen Elizabeth, and professor of the Telefónica Violin Chair at the Reina Sofía Higher School of Music in Madrid.  And also Ana Liz Ojeda, a violinist in the Accademia Bizantina since 2012 and a specialist in the historically informed performance of the repertoire of the 17^th and 18^th centuries.

On the viola, we will have Julia Gartemann, professor at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler and member of the Berliner Philharmoniker since 2000; and Macarena Pesutic, artistic director of Tenerife Viola Masterclass, winner of the RWE Competition of Leipzig and of the Music Teachers National Association, and teacher of the Higher Music Conservatory of the Canaries since 2005.

Lastly, the quintet will be completed by Enrico Bronzi, a cellist in the Trio di Parma and professor at the Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg since 2007.

The first work we will listen to will be the String Quintet No. 4 in G minor, K. 516 by Mozart, composed in 1787. It is divided into four movements, imbued with an uneasy, dramatic and melancholic character, aside from the allegro of the fourth movement, in the form of a relaxed rondo and in the key of G major, in which the work ends. Mozart was a pioneer in the creation of music for this chamber group, most common in the 19^thand 20^th centuries.

Then, we will enjoy the String Quintet in E♭ major, Op. 97 by Dvorak, composed in 1893 in memory of his days in Spillville, Iowa, where he had contact with the music of the Native Americans, as reflected in the marked rhythmic nature of the work and in the occasional use of pentatonic scales. With certain connections to the New World Symphony and the American Quartet, composed that same year, Dvorak gives the viola a very key role in the most lyrical moments of the work, as well as its solo opening.

Marta Álvarez García

Musicology Department

Higher Music Conservatory of the Canaries