2023 04 29-30 Ragged Music Festival ENG - Website

Programme notes
better than words could. It was only a couple
of weeks later that the young Felix died of
tuberculosis. In the whole output of Brahms,
a composer who always carefully followed
the strategy of concealment of the personal
in his art, this moment remains possibly the
most majestic of all. The death of Felix is
documented, imprinted in this sonata in an
almost archaeological way: as the melody
from a letter to Clara is interrupted by a
funeral march, the Sonata changes its course
and never becomes the happy piece that it
promised to be, and probably would have
been, had circumstances been different.
Instead, in its final movement, punctuated
by a rhythm of irregular heartbeat, it threads
memories and doubts, that at times seem to
be lit by a faint, otherworldly light coming
through a curtain of rain, as a glimpse of
hope.
gently – as if searching like a blind person
for something that is beyond our field of
vision or understanding. The Seven Poems of
Alexander Blok is one of the most important
works from the late period but also one of
the least known. The synthesis of Blok’s
poetry - intuitive, brooding, sensual, and
deeply, richly symbolist - with this stark and
almost monochromatic music is paradoxical
and disturbing - as if some dark ancient
prophecies were whispered, muttered, and
cried out to us desperately but indistinctly
by someone on the very threshold of being.
Seven romances of Dmitri Shostakovich
It is interesting how universal some of the
most private human experiences can be.
For instance, the way we approach the end
of our life is for most of us a very private
affair. But looking at the history of art we
find that this path is so often walked in
similar ways. The evidence of this is found
in the so called “late style” which, for a
countless number of artists across all art
forms, repeats the same characteristics:
austerity, sparseness, simplicity; the
unusual combination of greater freedom
with a certain rigour that often makes the
work ambiguous and cryptic. This also
describes the late style of Shostakovich,
at times severe and abstract, and at times
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