Northern Lights. Micro Concert #13 of the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin

Finnish composer Einojuani Rautavaara (1928-2016) was born at a time when his compatriot and role model Jean Sibelius finally stopped composing. Rautavaara’s first string quartet (1953) reveals his interest in neoclassicism. An idiom reminiscent of Stravinsky and Finnish folk music form an exciting combination. But Slavic Romanticism was no stranger to the Finn, nor was a peppery Italian gigue at the end.

With a similarly cheerful gesture, around 1890 the Norwegian Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) started adding a ‘light and joyful sister’ in F major to his rather brooding first string quartet in G minor. But the bright, serenade-like work was to remain only two movements long. Despite several attempts, Edvard Grieg never got around to finishing the promising fragment.

Einojuhani Rautavaara: String Quartet No. 1 („Quartettino“)

Edvard Grieg: String Quartet No. 2 F Major EG 117

Beteiligte

Maria Pflüger: Violin

Brigitte Draganov: Violin

Gernot Adrion: Viola

Jörg Breuninger: Violoncello

Steffen Georgi / Jan Linders: Moderation

Gernot Adrion has been deputy principal violist in the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin since 1996. He studied at the Meistersinger Conservatory in Nuremberg with Hans Kohlhase until 1995 and has won prizes at various competitions, including the national competition “Jugend musiziert,” the IHK competition, the Dr. Drexel competition in Nuremberg, and the German Conservatory Competition in Darmstadt. 
In addition to his pedagogical activities as a mentor at the RSB Orchestra Academy, he has a particular love for chamber music. Since 2006, he has collaborated regularly with Susanne Herzog and Hans-Jakob Eschenburg in the Gideon Klein Trio, and since 2012 in a duo with pianist Yuki Inagawa.
Gernot Adrion plays a viola by Petrus Gaggini.

Jörg Breuninger has been a member of the RSB since 1996. He completed his studies with a diploma at the Karlsruhe University of Music (with Annemarie Dengler-Speermann) and in Cologne (with Claus Kanngiesser). He furthered his training with master classes given by Boris Pergamenschikoff, Wolfgang Boettcher, and Valentin Berlinski (Borodin Quartet).
The cellist won prizes at the national competition “Jugend musiziert,” the BDI competition, and the International Chamber Music Competition in Illzach in a string trio with his brothers, and he reached the finals of the Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition. He has performed in many chamber music formations, such as the “Epos String Quartet,” and also arranges pieces for four cellos, which he performs together with the ensemble “Just four Cellos.”
As a chamber musician, he regularly participates in RSB concerts.

Brigitte Draganov was born in Potsdam and has been playing in the Berlin Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester since 1994. In 1995, she became a permanent member of the second violin section. She attended the Special School for Music from 1982 to 1989 and studied at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin. Her professors included U. Scholz, G. Schmahl, and W.-K. Zeller.
Since 1995, Brigitte Draganov has played as a substitute and later as a temporary member of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin and the Berlin Chamber Orchestra, and for many years in the Berlin Chamber Symphony. In 2001, Brigitte Draganov was appointed to the Bayreuth Festival Orchestra.

Maria Pflüger has been a member of the RSB’s first violin section since 1996.
She completed her diploma studies in London at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama with Yfrah Neaman and took master classes with Henry Szering and Tatjana Grindenko. She also completed a two-year course of study at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory with Maja Glesarowa. She received a DAAD scholarship for both study visits.
Maria Pflüger has won prizes at competitions in Vichy (France), Finale di Ligure (Italy), Caltanisetta (Sicily), and London at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. She also plays the solo violin on the Echo Award-winning CD production Pollicino (Hans Werner Henze), released by WERGO in 2003.

Further Information

- A Humboldt Forum ticket is required: €14.00 / reduced €7.00
- You will need a Humboldt Forum Ticket, which also allows you to visit all the exhibitions in the museum before and after. Free admission for children and young people up to the age of 19, standard discounts apply. Tickets are available online or at the ticket counter in the foyer.Please leave coats and large bags at the checkroom or lockers before the concert. The number of seats is limited, plus standing room. In the event of overcrowding, we will have to close the entrance temporarily.
- Duration: 60 min
- Language: German, no language skills required
- For people with visual impairments
- Stairwell, 2nd floor