Quintet (for Clarinet, 2 Violins, Cello Full Score)

Full Score, Softcover Hans Winterberg's Quintet was composed in 1981/82 at his last residence in Steppberg, Bavaria, on the occasion of a composition competition organised by the East German Cultural Council. Until the release of this first editon, it had been recorded for a CD production but had not yet been performed live in concert. With this work, which Winterberg entitled Cyclame on one of the two manuscripts, the composer concludes his chamber music oeuvre, which was rich in the most diverse instrumentations and had begun brilliantly in 1935, during his time in Prague, with the Quintet for violin, 2 clarinets, horn and piano. The first two, predominantly lyrical movements, which are characterised by great delicacy on a rhythmic-metric level, are marked by a certain mildness of age. With its musical verve, the last movement takes us back to Winterberg's origins in Bohemian-Moorish folklore, which was one of the most important impulses in his work, alongside the school of Schumann, which was conveyed by Zemlinsky. Winterberg was the only important Czech composer of Jewish descent to survive the Shoah. In his post-war oeuvre, he was able to continue the fascinating German-Czech cultural symbiosis that was brutally destroyed by Nazi Germany - unnoticed by the international music world. It is time to bring this wonderful musical treasure, long hidden from us, back to life.