Nachtklang im Museum IV – Kammerorchester Basel

Description

Program: Featuring music by J. S. Bach, L. Janáček, B. Britten, V. Dinescu, and C. Debussy Concert details: The program of Nachtklang at the Kunstmuseum – for the first time as a matinée – spans from Bach through classical modernism to the present day. At the beginning of the 20th century, a palpable spirit of upheaval was in the air across all areas of life: social and political upheavals were underway, and in visual arts as well as music, old forms and traditional listening habits were breaking apart simultaneously. Chagall let village and sky, love and music intertwine in his floating, dreamlike compositions; Kandinsky moved away from representational images and sought the pure effect of color. It is the same spirit of renewal that also seized music – and in particular, Leoš Janáček's work Mládí (Youth). "Youth, golden youth" (Mládí, zlaté Mládí) – so the oboe exclaims at the beginning of Janáček's wind sextet Mládí. The work is purely instrumental, but Janáček often thinks from the spoken word: the speech melody of the exclamation is transferred into an instrumental line, as a memory of his own youth. Not only golden feelings, but also mixed emotions come to light. Benjamin Britten probably listened to Janáček's wind sextet Mládí and was inspired by it when he composed the only movement of his wind sextet at the age of just 16. He incorporates atonal elements, but still operates within the tonal sound world, which he would later leave. Just as Chagall and Kandinsky in painting reassemble reality anew, Claude Debussy dissolves fixed forms in music: atmosphere and fleeting moments become more important than developed themes. In this sense, Debussy's Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, arranged for six wind instruments, marks a turning point in the development towards modern music. Johann Sebastian Bach's six-voice Ricercar is a monumental fugue, considered a highlight of his late work. Six voices introduce the royal theme successively and traverse the tonal plan. In the early 20th century, it was believed that Bach's late works were not composed for a specific instrument. Therefore, many orchestrations were created – to this day: we perform the arrangement by Matthias Arter, solo oboist of the Kammerorchester Basel. This brings Bach's contrapuntal grandeur closer to the revolutionary movement at the beginning of the 20th century. With Violeta Dinescu (*1953), the program extends into the immediate present. Her composition Alternanzen for wind quintet connects to the same instrumentation used by Janáček and Britten. The Alternanzen combine the wind tradition of classical modernism with a contemporary musical language influenced by Eastern European soundscapes. Participants and additional information: Musicians of the Kammerorchester Basel: Isabelle Schnöller (flute), Matthias Arter (oboe), Etele Dosa (clarinet), Markus Niederhauser (clarinet), Matthias Bühlmann (bassoon), Konstantin Timokhine (horn)