New Adventures with Psappha
Thursday September 27th 2018, 7:30pm, The Stoller Hall, Manchester
Witold Lutosławski Variations on a Theme of Paganini
Béla Bartók Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion
György Kurtág Scenes from a Novel*
György Ligeti Aventures & Nouvelles Aventures
Nicholas Kok conductor
Gillian Keith soprano
Jessica Gillingwater mezzo soprano
Alexander Robin Baker baritone
*Elaine Tyler-Hall director
Ligeti’s astonishing Aventures & Nouvelles Aventures is both touching and comic. Three singers – alone in their little universe – tell each other stories, exchange confidences and play games through an invented language of the emotions. Meanwhile, the instrumentalists punctuate the drama with some extreme musical interjections involving a giant hammer, a tray of crockery, and a large rug!
Voice, film and dance combine in Psappha’s atmospheric production of Kurtág’s Scenes from a Novel, which explores the contradictions between fleeting experience and the persistence of memory.
Also featuring Bartók’s exhilarating Sonata for Pianos and Percussion and Lutosławski’s witty, two-piano arrangement of Variations on a Theme of Paganini, the concert launches Psappha’s new season in terrific style.