Ensemble Intercontemporain - Peter Eötvös

The French Ensemble Intercontemporain kicks off Ars Musica in Antwerp. With Peter Eötvös, the Hungarian who has certainly earned his reputation as a highly capable conductor. As a composer too he comes under the heading of 'great names'. In his 'Snatches of a Conversation' for ensemble and trumpet with double bell, Eötvös threads several conversations into one piece: a dialogue between trumpet and ensemble, but also a dialogue between very varied timbres generated in the two bells by means of different mutes. Excerpts of spoken text serve as feverish background noise. More spoken text is performed in Berio's virtuoso 'Recital I', written for his partner Cathy Berberian, but in this case as theatrical flashes in a whirling kaleidoscope of singing styles. It will be an unique occasion to hear the Canadian soprano Measha Brueggergosma. The 'Danses Interrompues' also display multiple styles, and the young Frenchman Bruno Mantovani harks back to jazz, techno and flamenco. Ligeti's 'Chamber concerto' marks a turning point in the Hungarian composer's oeuvre: intricately woven tissues of sound from earlier micro-polyphony make way for melodic lines.