The main work on this program is Reinhard Schwarz-Schilling’s (1904-85) large String Quartet in F minor in a version for string orchestra that simply adds a double bass part. The symphonic and dramatic dimension of this work, in the German tradition of counterpoint emerging from Bach via late Beethoven, Bruckner and Schwarz-Schilling’s mentor Heinrich Kaminski, is hereby realized with more richness, plasticity of shape, and bold contrast.

It is followed by further arrangements of string quartet movements by Mozart and Beethoven, Arvo Pärt’s ‘Orient & Occident’, and two world premiere recordings of contemporary works by Peter Michael Hamel and Anders Eliasson.

Symphonia Momentum, founded in 2010 in Munich, is a string orchestra of 20 excellent young musicians from 13 nations, working together in extensive and intense rehearsal periods. The programs unconventionally combine masterworks of relatively unknown composers with well-known works, and in this way reveal undreamt-of relations.

Rebekka Hartmann, concertmaster of Symphonia Momentum, is one of the leading German violinists of our time. In 2012 she won the Echo Klassik price. Christoph Eschenbach praised her “superb virtuosity, deep musicality, personality and strong charisma”. Christoph Schlüren, founder and conductor of the orchestra, studied with Sergiu Celibidache from 1981 to 1996. He continually works with international soloists and chamber musicians towards the finishing touch of their phrasing and understanding. José Serebrier described him as “one of the most complete musicians I know. Historian, musicologist, conductor, writer, critic, and many other specialties make him one of the wonders of today’s music world, a true Renaissance man of music.”

The CD is dedicated to the memory of Anders Eliasson, who died in 2013.