La Finesse String Quartet wows audience with newly arranged works at Wertheim Castle

They feel just as much at home on the stage of the Alte Oper in Frankfurt as they do at events in the Munich Exhibition Center or in the Kurhaus in Wiesbaden: the four ladies from “La Finesse”, who made their first stop at Wertheim Castle on Friday evening. The string quartet not only excited the audience with their music.

Castle manager Christian Schlager had had her sights set on an appearance for a long time, and now it had finally worked. A good 200 visitors came without really knowing what to expect. Because La Finesse is still considered an insider tip. But that won’t be the case for much longer, because their music is breathtaking. No wonder that standing ovations were the result of a wonderful evening with lots of musical enjoyment, but also visual effects.

Pieces new arranged

Already the entry on the balustrade of the castle moat with high heels and red robes gave an idea that a show is being offered that evening that is otherwise very rarely seen. All four musicians – they call themselves “Finessen” – are exceptional artists. The overall project La Finesse includes more than 20 women who also play in renowned orchestras or appear in other combinations as “La Finesse and Friends”. That’s why it can happen that you can appear in two places at the same time or the cast changes, the real head of La Finesse, Birgit Saemann, reported to the audience. The cellist is the creative part and has rearranged all the pieces being performed specifically for the string quartet.

This can be classical works such as Mozart’s “Für Elise” or Ludwig van Beethoven’s seventh symphony. But also classics, such as from the film “The Third Man” or soundtracks from the “Star Wars” universe or the “Typewriter” from the well-known Jerry Lewis film. But the pieces are not simply replayed, thanks to the new arrangements they sound completely different than usual.

Enthusiasm from the start

Almost “limitless”, one might think – and that’s also the title of the concert at Wertheim Castle. The music was inspiring from the start, thanks to sophisticated technology and a stage show that you wouldn’t actually expect from a string quartet. We would have liked to have chosen a separate disguise for each piece, but the changing breaks would definitely have been too long. And you wanted to entertain the audience with music. So all that was left was a red outfit at the beginning and a black outfit after the break. But in between, the four ladies whirled across the stage as if there was no stopping them.

It became quite extraordinary when Birgit Saemann announced a “Quodlibet”: A piece of music in which several independent melodies merged into one another. The audience was called upon to sing along diligently – which was also possible thanks to the musical accompaniment of La Finesse. Support was also obtained for the piece “Typewriter”: While the four ladies played the melody, a guest from the audience was allowed to produce the unmistakable ring tone, but not with a typewriter but with a hotel bell. A bit shy at first, things got better and better towards the end and the audience applauded enthusiastically.

That was also the case when Birgit Saemann brought out the “singing saw” and elicited almost spherical sounds from the instrument in the piece by Ennio Moricone “Play me the song of death”. The conclusion was “Classic on Catwalk”, a film medley, before the two violins, the viola and the cello walked through the audience and ended the concert.

Matthew Ernest

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