When the classical meets the new, the result is usually quite unexpected, but at the same time intriguing and memorable fusions. Tonight, DJ Lenar and musicians of the Lutosławski Quartet will join forces, performing works by artists born in the 20th century - Valentyn Silvestrov, George Crumb, István Márta, and Antoni Komasa-Łazarkiewicz.
Silvestrov is one of the most important living Ukrainian composers. A few months ago, the artist was honoured with one of the most prestigious European music awards – Opus Klassik – for life achievement, and also awarded the Gold Medal “Gloria Artis Meritorious to Culture”. His String Quartet No. 1 from 1974 is one of Silvestrov’s most frequently performed works, influenced by the 20th-century avant-garde. The 1970s were a time when he drew on the style of early music, which is not without significance in how the composition sounds.
Black Angels: Thirteen Images from the Dark Land by George Crumb, who passed away last year, is a piece for an amplified string quartet. The work reflects Crumb’s interest in the problems of the modern world, which is also evidenced by the note in the score: in tempore belli – during the war. The composer referred to the war in Vietnam, and he also wove fragments of works on the theme of death into the sound layer, including the famous medieval sequence Dies irae or the String Quartet No. 14 “Death and the Maiden” by Franz Schubert. However, what is most unconventional in this work are the tools that the performers should use. Crumb requires playing percussion instruments, glasses filled with water, and chanting. The mystical work Doom. A Sigh by István Márty, a contemporary Hungarian artist, is based on two folk songs that the composer ran into during his stay in Romania in 1973. The first of them summons the souls of the dead, and the second tells the story of a bloody battle.
The concert will end with the premiere of the Wings by Antoni Komasa-Łazarkiewicz for string quartet and Ukrainian Artists’ Choir, which is an interpretation of the poem of the same title (Ukrainian: Крила) by a contemporary Ukrainian poet, Lina Kostenko. The work was composed as the soundtrack for the documentary From Where To, which will premiere in May at the Millennium Docs Against Gravity Festival. The film, made during the evacuation operations conducted in Ukraine since the first days of the war, is a collective portrait and a record of a polyphonic narrative, made up of the experiences of people who have one goal: to find a safe shelter.
