Guido De Neve & Jan Michiels

Two experienced chamber musicians from Belgium round off our focus on Jörg Widmann with an intimate concert evening. On the appearance of his only finished sonata in 1922, Leos Janácek claimed that he "had written the work in the spring of 1914, while people in Brno were waiting for the arrival of the Russians". Echoes of his opera 'Katya Kabanova' can be heard in it. Dominating the many changes of atmosphere is a pronounced feeling of despair. A surprise inclusion in this concert is the old fourth movement of this work, the 'Allegro'. Janácek forms a fine pendant to the music of Widmann, which is likewise laden with emotion and full of abrupt changes of mood, besides being highly communicative. His scores avidly search for extremes, as can be heard in his Etude No. 5 for violin, written in homage to Niccolo Paganini and thus a challenge for any violin virtuoso. The 'Sommersonate' for violin and piano is again a typical Widmann exploration, questing for the new and the unknown, yet still anchored in tradition. That puts us right in the mood for the new work by Luc Van Hove, written especially for this evening and for these musicians. 'Tradition and Renewal' could be the motto for these established composers. For connoisseurs!