Ensemble Resonanz / Jean-Guihen Queyras / Johannes Fischer

• Classical Music

»›I can’t remember things before they happen,‹ remarked Alice.
›It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backwards,‹ the Queen remarked.« (Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There)

An old Bohemian chorale and imagined landscapes of forests and veils of mist form the backdrop for two unique cello concertos by György Ligeti and Anton Kraft – bridging the gap between artistic boundaries and classical form. Together with the Hamburg-based Ensemble Resonanz, the internationally acclaimed cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras brings their works to life, »as a messenger between the world of the composer and the imagination of the listener«, in his words.

Ligeti’s Cello Concerto rises out of nowhere, without a red carpet for the soloist’s performance, but rather as a journey through the interstices of silence and the barely audible, of sound and noise, to explore the extreme subtleties of timbre and emotion. An anti-concert with a hypnotic effect that challenges boundaries and laws. Anton Kraft was also fond of playing with what was possible, which had already impressed his contemporaries Haydn and Beethoven.

The Monkey Mountains, also known as the Krkonoe Mountains, inspired the Czech composer Pavel Haas almost exactly a century ago. At a time of great political unrest and personal turmoil, he created an expressive work full of emotions and contrasts: peaks rise up like sleeping giants, dancing on tiptoe to mazurkas and polkas to catchy melodies, only to fall out of time and form with drums at the end. From delicate, lyrical passages to explosive, rhythmic outbursts, this piece offers a variety of impressions that resonate long after you leave the concert hall. Banned at the time, but not forgotten.

PERFORMERS

Ensemble Resonanz chamber orchestra

Jean-Guihen Queyras violoncello

Johannes Fischer percussion and direction (Ligeti)

PROGRAM

Josef Suk
Meditation on the Old Czech Chorale St. Wenceslas, Op. 35a

György Ligeti
Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra

Anton Kraft
Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra in C major, Op. 4

- Interval -

Pavel Haas
String Quartet No. 2, Op. 7 »From the Monkey Mountains«