Chamber Music

Collenbusch with Brahms

String quartet par excellence

11/23

Sunday | 11/23/2025
3:00 pm Start of Concert
Kulturpalast, Konzertsaal

About the Concert

British chamber music paired with a masterpiece of German Romanticism - in this concert, we bring together unjustly unknown pieces with rightfully famous ones. Brahms' Piano Quintet in F minor is part of the musical heritage, like Beethoven's symphonies, and is just as popular today as classics like the Fifth Symphony. On the other hand, Arnold Bax, the British composer born in 1883, was a star in his homeland during his lifetime but later almost fell into obscurity. He was never quite well-known here. However, he has written beautiful music! His First String Quartet is full of romantic melodies and captivates listeners immediately. Our Composer in Residence, James MacMillan, contributes another work from the island with his Second String Quartet, which even music critics rave about, describing it as a "captivating, powerful masterpiece" that captivates narratively and emotionally.

Program

Arnold Bax
String Quartet No. 1 in G Major

Sir James MacMillan (Composer in Residence)
"Why is this night different?" String Quartet No. 2

Johannes Brahms
Piano Quintet in F minor

Artists

Collenbusch Quartett
String Quartet
Cordula Fest
Violin
Christiane Liskowsky
Violin
Christina Biwank
Viola
Ulf Prelle
Cello
Christoph Berner
Piano

Biographies

Collenbusch Quartett

The Collenbusch Quartet consists of four members of the Dresden Philharmonic who first played together in this formation for a chamber music concert of the orchestra in 2012 and made it become a lovely tradition afterwards.

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Cordula Fest

Concertmaster 2nd Violin

Cordula Fest received her first violin lessons at the age of 5. She studied at the Hochschule für Musik in Dresden with Prof. Reinhard Ulbricht and with Prof. Yair Kless at the University of Music in Graz/Austria. Numerous master classes, among others with Zakhar Bron, Donald Weilerstein and Roman Totenberg/USA completed her studies.

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Christiane Liskowsky

Christiane Liskowsky received her first violin lessons in Dresden at the age of seven and began her training in 1988 at the special school of the Carl Maria von Weber Academy of Music in Dresden. She participated very successfully several times in the national competition "Jugend musiziert" and played in the national youth orchestra.

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Christina Biwank

1st Principal Viola | Chairperson of the Orchestra Board

Christina Biwank is principal violist of the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra. She is also active in a variety of chamber music activities and holds a teaching position at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber Dresden.

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Ulf Prelle

1st Principal Cello

Ulf Prelle began his cello studies in the USA with the La Salle Quartet and Zara Nelsova. Further studies took him to Basel with Thomas Demenga and to Cologne with Boris Pergamenschikow. Subsequently, he was a scholarship holder of the Orchestra Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

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Christoph Berner

Christoph Berner is one of Austria's leading pianists and has received numerous awards over the course of his long career. He often performs as a soloist with orchestras, but also as a Lied accompanist, for example with tenor Werner Güra, or as a chamber music partner for instrumentalists or ensembles. He has been a professor of vocal accompaniment and Lied interpretation at the Zurich University of the Arts since 2014.

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