Trans: Danubia

Béla Bartók, Johannes Brahms

On Friday evening, the festival will pay tribute to Pannonia and its musical breadth. Traversing the region, we will enjoy fleeting glimpses of the folk music that has fascinated numerous composers of so-called serious music. The two concerts of the evening, Danubia and Gitana, will reveal the extremes of music throughout the Pannonian region: first in a “highly distilled dose”, as Mate Bekavac puts it, and then in an authentic interpretation of the music of Romani virtuosos living in Hungary.

At the concert entitled Danubia, the string players of the uncompromising Kelemen Quartet will join forces with the like-minded Bekavac and perform compositions by two rather contrasting masters. Bartók and Brahms both followed their own stylistic paths, contributing important works to the chamber music repertoire, yet they share a lifelong affection for the folk music of the Hungarian lands. Bartók knew the music of his homeland like the back of his hand, so he easily internalised its elements and integrated them into his own original musical style. In String Quartet No. 5, he also played with musical material from other countries on the banks of the Danube. In the scherzo, the irregular rhythms of Bulgarian music are interwoven with melodies of a Hungarian and Romanian character.

Brahms became familiar with Hungarian or Romani music at a young age and never renounced this idiom, even when composing for the most academically demanding audience. Just when he was planning to retire from composing, he was drawn from creative resignation by a charismatic clarinet virtuoso with an ability to play his instrument so gently that it immediately evoked in Brahms the melancholy of his beloved Pannonian music. In his late Clarinet Quintet, the strings and clarinet blend warmly, while in the slow movement, the composer allows the clarinettist an expansive soloistic “Romani” rhapsodic scene that warms the heart and moistens the eyes.