Johann Sebastian Bach: Two Part Inventions, BWV 772–786 (arr. Fabrizio Ferrari for violin and viola)
Zoltán Kodály: Duo for Cello and Violin, Op. 7
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Béla Bartók: Duos for Two Violins, Sz. 98, BB 104 (selection)
The evening’s three musicians will, despite obvious expectations, alternate in twos, and not by accident: the spider’s silk of their web will weave around the theme of “less is more.” They will explore fundamental expressive impulses and principles of originality in order to make incredible connections between them: between the canonic classical Western European composers and those from the edge of modern Europe who searched for the primal elements of musical expression over unexplored terrain, the sparsely inhabited plains of their homeland. As Johann Sebastian Bach celebrated the major-minor tonal system and the artificial purity of musical tuning, natural tuning was sacrificed in order to allow harmonies to flow continuously across different tonalities – thus paving the way for all the music we know and love today. In his Inventions, originally intended for keyboard, two pure musical lines inherently reveal all the harmonic potential that was eventually subjected to endless complexity by later developments in music. Two centuries later, Hungarians Béla Bartok and Zoltán Kodály sought a way back to their origins and listened carefully to the seemingly simple folk music of their people. The more they listened, the wider the universe of new musical possibilities expanded.
Listening to these two types of music on the same programme and discovering that the deepest insights always lead to the purest form of reduction may be one of the experiences we will take home from this concert. We may also be overwhelmed by the liveliness conveyed by the music of all three masters over the decades, even centuries, that continues to excite even modern music lovers. Here we have in mind both the audience and the duos who will be sharing the stage:
Nicolas Altstaedt and his charismatic Hungarian concert partners and friends,
Katalin Kokas and
Barnabás Kelemen – three mutually inspired artists building bridges between West and East, German and Hungarian, between the canonic and the obscure, and connecting music to Music.
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Tickets: Festival Pass 60 € / 20 € / Pre-sale 16 € / Senior 16 € / Students, Disability 10 €
Discounted tickets can be purchased at the Information office of Narodni dom Maribor or at the concert venue up to an hour before the concert.
