The chamber concert will feature works by Virko Baley, Johannes Brahms and Jörg Widmann. The clarity of expression, the diversity of moods and colours, all this can be seen in the diverse line-ups of individual compositions. Olga Pasiecznik, an excellent singer enjoying international recognition, will take part in the performance of the works by two of the featured composers.

Born in 1938, Virko Baley is a Ukrainian-American composer, conductor, pianist and teacher. For almost half a century, he served as a composition teacher at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and was also one of the founders and conductor of the Nevada Symphony Orchestra, artistic director of the Las Vegas Chamber Players, and guest conductor of the Kyiv Camerata. His compositional output is rich: it includes two symphonies, an opera and numerous chamber works written for various, often untypical ensembles. A perfect example is the expressive, dark Threnodies written for two cellos and soprano. It was first performed in 1998 by Olga Pasiecznik. She will sing it again at the NFM. Johannes Brahms’ Sonata No. 1 in G major for violin and piano will be presented in a version for cello and piano. This work was written in the summer months of 1878 and 1879, during the composer’s holidays in the town of Pörtschach am Wörthersee in Carinthia. The author used the material of two of his songs from his song cycle op. 59 – Nachklang and Regenlied. He used a rhythm resembling falling rain in the latter and then included it in the Sonata, therefore it is sometimes called “Regensonate” (“Rain Sonata”).

The second part of the concert will be filled with music by the contemporary German composer Jörg Widmann. It will be represented by the song cycle Sieben Abgesänge auf eine tote Linde, intended for soprano, clarinet, violin and piano. The history of this work is quite extraordinary. In 1996, during a concert of the Münchener Kammerorchester in the Bavarian town of Münsing, a huge storm broke out. Lightning struck one of the most characteristic elements of the landscape – a linden tree that was several hundred years old. This event deeply moved the local poet Diane Kempff, who then wrote several poems dedicated to the burned tree. The director of the Münchener Kammerorchester, Christoph Poppen, approached Widmann with a proposal to set these poems to music, to which the artist gladly agreed. The fate of the linden tree became a pretext for the poet and composer to create a sometimes meditative and sometimes macabre existential reflection.