deFilharmonie - Reinbert de Leeuw

The suite out of 'The Miraculous Mandarin' is characterized by exemplary orchestration and an overpowering rhythmic dynamism. The First Piano Concerto subtly hints at the concerto grosso. Both works of Béla Bartók (1881-1945) have largely influenced the artistic expression of the 20th Century and are the ideal musical point of reference for the work of Györgi Ligeti (°1923). 'Concert Românesc' dates from 1951 and is a flashback to a period when Ligeti was studying music theory and analysis, Hungarian folk, while dispersing this knowledge among his students in Budapest. 'Lontano' dates from1967. It underlines Ligeti's return to the symphonic orchestra, away from the avant-garde. The orchestra played the entire pallet of the late 19th Century; allusions to Bruckner always close at hand. Abstract modernism gave way to the grand gesture of romantic rubato. The work begins with what Schönberg called 'Klangfarbenmelodie': the interconnection of changes in timbre, a chameleon moving through time. Further into the work, we hear a Renaissance parody in the likes of Ockeghem and a Neoromantic reference to light. Lontano is an important pivotal work in the oeuvre of Ligeti.