György Ligeti (1923-2006)
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (1985-88)
Hannah Kendall (*1984)
The Spark Catchers for Orchestra (2017) CH
Lukas Ligeti (*1965)
Suite for Burkina Electric and Orchestra (2016) CH
Chloé Dufresne, conductor
Joonas Ahonen, piano
Burkina Electric: Vicky Lamour, dance; Zoko Zoko, dance; Maï Lingani, vocals; Wende K. Blass, guitar; Lukas Ligeti, drums, electronics
The music of György Ligeti is characterized by an unparalleled openness with which this great Austro-Hungarian sound magician encountered diverse cultures and genres in his search for the new. His son, Lukas Ligeti, has inherited this curiosity and moves as a boundary-crosser between different musical traditions – both as a composer and as a percussionist in his Ouagadougou-based band, Burkina Electric.
György Ligeti's Piano Concerto is considered his aesthetic credo: free from stylistic constraints, a tour de force full of pianistic discoveries. Whole-tone scales and pentatonic scales, several keys simultaneously, complex rhythms, and harmonically overwhelming sonic journeys – whose starting point can also be found in the composer's admiration for African polyphony.
The composer Hannah Kendall's family roots lie in Guyana. She has long since made a name for herself in her native Great Britain, for example with her orchestral piece "The Spark Catchers," inspired by a poem about female workers in a London match factory, which premiered at the BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall in 2017.
Lukas Ligeti's suite, written for his own band Burkina Electric and orchestra, explores the tension between the different approaches of these ensembles from different worlds: the classical symphony orchestra on the one hand and the African pop band on the other. It is a kind of concerto grosso that artistically unites both groups. A musical and conceptual adventure.
Concert introduction 6:15 pm
In cooperation with the Paul Sacher Foundation as part of the exhibition «Ligeti Labyrinth» and with the Culturescapes Festival
CH) Swiss premiere (
- Program subject to change
