György Ligeti (1923-2006)
Konzert for piano and orchestra (1985-88)
Hannah Kendall (*1984)
The Spark Catchers for orchestra (2017) CH
Lukas Ligeti (*1965)
Suite for Burkina Electric and orchestra (2016) CH
Chloé Dufresne, conductor
Joonas Ahonen, piano
Burkina Electric: Vicky Lamour, dance; Zoko Zoko, dance; Maï Lingani, vocals; Wende K. Blass, guitar; Lukas Ligeti, percussion, electronics
The music of György Ligeti is characterized by the unparalleled openness with which this great Austro-Hungarian sound genius approached the most diverse cultures and genres in his search for the new. His son Lukas Ligeti inherited this curiosity and crosses borders between different musical traditions – both as a composer and as a percussionist with his Ouagadougou-based band Burkina Electric.
György Ligeti's Piano Concerto is considered his aesthetic credo: free of stylistic constraints, a tour de force full of pianistic discoveries. Whole tone scales and pentatonics, several keys simultaneously, complex rhythms as well as harmonically mind-blowing sonic adventures – the source of which can also be found in the composer's admiration for African polyphony.
The composer Hannah Kendall has her roots in Guyana. In her native Great Britain, she has long since made a name for herself. For example, with her orchestral piece The Spark Catchers, inspired by a poem about female workers in a London match factory, which was premiered at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in 2017.
Lukas Ligeti's suite written for his own band Burkina Electric and orchestra explores the tension between the divergent approaches taken by these ensembles from different spheres, the classical symphony orchestra on the one hand and the African pop band on the other. It is a kind of concerto grosso that artistically unites the two groups involved. A musical-conceptual adventure.
Pre-concert talk at 6:15 pm
In cooperation with the Paul Sacher Foundation as part of the exhibition Ligeti Labyrinth and with the festival Culturescapes
CH Swiss premiere
Program subject to change
