7 p.m.: GMT+2 / ora 19 Muzeul Etnografic al Transilvaniei Cluj-Napoca
Opening concert of the Festival Concert de deschidere a Festivalului
(Berlin)
Marketa Janouskova, Leo Thouvenin-Masson, Mikhail Misha Balan-Dorfman, Ehrengard Syverson von Gemmingen
PROGRAM Violeta Dinescu Nur manchmal träumerisch! (2020) 1. Libero 2. Tranquillo 3. Vivo con brio 4. Moderato pensieroso 5. Agitato 6. Molto tranquillo 7. Rubato Erwin Schulhoff Streichuqartett Nr.1 (1924) 1. Presto con fuoco 2. Allegretto con moto e con malinconia grotesca 3. Allegro giocoso alla Slovacca 4. Andante molto sostenuto Gabriel Iranyi Streichquartett Nr.3 (2008) 1. Lento 2. Prestissimo 3. Adagietto 4. Con moto György Ligeti Andante und Allegretto (1950) 1. Andante cantabile 2. Allegretto poco capriccioso
Eveniment realizat în parteneriat cu: Centrul Cultural German, Goethe Institut, Muzeul Etnografic al Transilvaniei, Zilele Clujului, Consiliul și Primăria Cluj-Napoca.
Ensemble Incendo Berlin, since its establishment in 2000, on the occasion of the commemorative concert for the great friend and supporter of music Christoph Freiherr von Gemmingen-Guttenberg, has performed at numerous festivals (including Heidelberger Frühling, Mosbacher Sommer, Klanggestalten, Mozartiada in Zoppot/Poland, etc.), has been “Ensemble in Residence” at the “Kammermusik zwischen den Jahren” Festival, and performs with pleasure at distinctive venues in Berlin, such as Villa Liebermann, Kulturscheune “Mutter Fourage” and “Luftraum.” The collaboration with IPPNW, an organization awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, is particularly significant for the ensemble; in this context, one of the ensemble’s three CDs was produced. One of the ensemble’s special characteristics is its consistent collaboration with highly renowned guest soloists, which has provided the musicians with many interesting concerts, including performances with professors from Berlin’s Universities of Music.
Nur manchmal träumerisch (2020) by Violeta Dinescu was composed for Ensemble Incendo (Berlin). The string quartet is inspired by Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem Römische Fontäne. The piece does not attempt to set the text to music or to accompany it descriptively. Rather, it explores the atmospheric and structural qualities of the poem through sound. At its core, the composition seeks to render audible the space between the words – the unsaid, the imagined, the poetic resonance. The musical form mirrors the poem’s layered fluidity and evokes its internal rhythm without resorting to literal interpretation. The title, nur manchmal träumerisch (“only sometimes dreamily”), a direct quotation from the poem, is embedded in the score. It is not merely a reference but an integral part of the musical texture, both conceptually and sonically. Through nuanced timbral layering, subtle shifts in density, and microstructural development, the quartet creates a sonic environment that captures the intangible essence of Rilke’s poetic imagery.
The String Quartet No. 1 (1924) by Erwin Schulhoff constituted one of the greatest triumphs in Schulhoff’s career: its premiere at the annual Festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music in Venice in 1925 was enthusiastically acclaimed by both audience and critics. This enthusiasm remains comprehensible today, as the work, through its effervescent nervosity and its folkloric-tinged, iridescent sonic diversity, perfectly expresses the zeitgeist of the era. The classical four-movement schema, as exemplified in Haydn’s Quinten Quartet, is here varied in an original manner: the slow movement does not occupy the second position but concludes the work, while the first three movements possess a dance-like character, thereby creating almost a type of suite.
From the opening movement, Slavic themes are incorporated. The exorbitant sound effects are particularly noteworthy. Schulhoff did not conceive the string quartet as a melodic-thematic dialogue in the Haydnesque tradition, but rather as a sonic kaleidoscope. The four performers engage in an exchange of breathtaking virtuosity, alternating between pizzicato and con arco, utilizing diverse bowing techniques and articulations.
The two middle movements are sufficiently explained by their headings: the second movement should be performed “with grotesque melancholy,” while the third is an Allegro giocoso alla Slovacca, a scherzo inspired by Slovak folk music, the imitation being deceptively authentic. Schulhoff’s biographer Josef Bek highlighted a passage in which the string quartet literally sounds “like a folk ensemble with its primas.”
The finale forms a counterpoint to the vitality of the first three movements: “The poetic, melancholic nocturne functions as a contemplative conclusion to a turbulent occurrence. Above an ostinato pizzicato ‘foundation’ hover iridescent sound; the interspersed cadenzas in the middle section resonate as echoes of the dance-like escapades in the first three movements. (I. Allihn)
The String Quartet No. 3 by Gabriel Iranyi was composed in 2008 for a concert at the Konzerthaus Berlin performed by the “Iturriaga Quartet” from Leipzig. The work is structured in four distinct movements, each exploring different compositional dimensions and interpretative techniques.
The first movement, entitled Lento, establishes a dialectic between pregnant accents and contemplative sonic surfaces. Through a gradual process of expansion, the sonic dimension is progressively extended: punctual gettato elements are juxtaposed with quiet sonic segments that incorporate microtonal elements, culminating in a conclusive fermata.
The second movement, marked Prestissimo, manifests as a quasi-uninterrupted pulsation of sixteenth notes: the perpetual motion integrates surprising elements in constant renewal, and the metric dimension - through the constant and unpredictable alternations of the aksak rhythm - undergoes a gradual disintegration of its intrinsic symmetry. The process culminates in a concise cadential section for the first violin, characterized by virtuosic passages that fade into the extreme high register.
The third movement, Adagietto, is initiated through undulatory movements: the sonic contours gradually acquire a rougher character, and the accents become progressively more frequent. These are subsequently dissipated within the context of a heterophonic texture, characterized by sections of attenuated sonority.
The final movement, indicated Con moto, articulates energetic configurations: the generated transformations traverse multiple levels, both in terms of registers and sonic densities, before their gradual dissolution into the sphere of upper harmonics. For his graduation exam at the ”Franz Liszt” Music Academy in Budapest, György Ligeti completed Andante and Allegretto (1948–50), a piece that anticipated and, within a few years, led to the outstanding String Quartet No . 1, which musicologists have called Bartókian. Among those musicologists was Ligeti’s close friend and esteemed colleague György Kurtág: „Le premier quatuor à cordes, Métamorphoses nocturnes, vibre en moi comme s’il était le septième que Bartók n’a jamais écrit . Après les six quatuors de Bartók, cette œuvre reste du moins pour longtemps la plus importante du genre qui ait été écrite en Hongrie” (György Kurtág: Entretiens, texts, dessins, Geneva: Contrechamps, 2009, p . 171). Ligeti writes about Andante and Allegretto: ”They reflect my stylistic uncertainty in the early years of the Communist dictatorship in Hungary.” CD booklet for the Sony recording SK 62306 (1996).