Based on the dichotomy of the natural and the artificial, the view according to which the history of civilisation is the history of the ever deeper separation of humans from nature, the mainstay of nature within modern culture being folk art, is the legacy of the Romantic breakthrough. “Our artificial language has probably displaced the language of nature, our bourgeois lifestyle and social culture have probably suppressed, dried up and deflected the tide and sea of ​​passion; however, the most violent moment of feeling – wherever and however rarely it may occur – regains its rights and resounds directly with a special emphasis in the native language,” wrote, in 1772, in the Discourse on the Origin of Language, the German philosopher Johann Gottfried von Herder, together with Goethe belonging to the school of Weimar Classicism.

Since the end of the 18th century, one of the ideas for regaining the constantly lost sense of unity with the natural world has been reaching  for folklore. The field in which references to this folk culture became common was, of course, music. During the inaugural concert of this year’s edition of the Leo Festival, musicians from the NFM Leopoldinum Orchestra together with the undergraduates of music academies will perform four works inspired by folklore.

The Overture on Jewish Themes by Sergei Prokofiev will be played, created in 1919 in the United States at the request of members of an ensemble performing under the name Zimro. The group included Jewish musicians from Russia, former friends of the composer from the Sankt Petersburg Conservatory. These artists even provided Prokofiev with Jewish folk melodies, which he used when writing the work.

Johannes Brahms, in turn, encountered folklore – in his case Hungarian – while playing alongside the violinist Ede Reményi, born in Miskolc. The most famous result of these experiences are two notebooks of Hungarian Dances. However, they were first translated into Piano Quartet No. 1, premiered in Hamburg in 1861. During the festival concert, the musicians will reach for two movements of the piece, including the captivating finale using the czardas rhythm.

After coming into contact with authentic peasant music in 1904, Béla Bartók began independent travels with a phonograph in search of the oldest layers of folk musical culture. This interest turned into a great passion, encompassing not only the Hungarian lands, but also the territories of Algeria and Türkiye. Forty-four Duets for two violins are among the compositions in which this ethnographic activity of the artist found its reflection. He included folk melodies of Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Serbian, Ukrainian, Arabic, and Hungarian origin. The concert will conclude with a performance of Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s String Sextet in D minor, in which he combined folk melodies and rhythms with a classicising aesthetic reminiscent of the works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.