2023 04 29-30 Ragged Music Festival ENG - Website

Programme notes
Taking the first step, playing the first note, or even writing the first line of this text can be a
surprisingly overwhelming task. And just like that, opening a festival might feel like swimming
in an ocean of choices. What could, or should, become the starting point of a journey?
Unexpectedly, and fortunately, this wasn’t the case for us this time.
Bringing together this monumental trinity
of works for our opening concert was a
momentous decision, but it was made without
the slightest hesitation. There was an uncanny
feeling that these pieces demanded to be
played together—something we couldn’t
ignore nor resist.
In a way, considering their nature and
character, this couldn’t be more fitting. These
three pieces are wilful, uncompromising,
and unconventional masterworks. There is
something intimidating, unyielding, and nonnegotiable
about their pure, potent shapes
and blazing clarity of expression. We approach
them with awe and fervour.
The Cello Sonata of Ludwig van Beethoven
Occupying the centre stage, Beethoven’s
last cello sonata is a decisive and concise
work, gigantic in its impact and meaning
rather than in its scale. The movements are
remarkably compact and reduced and could
have felt, perhaps, somewhat ‘primitive’ if
not for their astonishing concentration and
precision. In turn, the high pathos and energy
of the piece are kept in perfect balance by its
functional, almost formulaic constructions. It
is an ultimately transcendental work: at every
moment and in every note, there is a feeling of
unknown energy and freshness, of unattainable
purity and condensed meaning. Most
interestingly, these consummate qualities may
strike one as somewhat menacing, extreme,
almost supernatural, and ultimately inhuman. It
is its otherworldly radiance that makes it both
so attractive but also a bit inaccessible.
The Violin Sonata of Dmitri Shostakovich
Remarkably for the late Shostakovich, there
is incredible directness in his Violin Sonata.
In his final years, the composer, preoccupied
with transience, mastered muted and veiled
tones. Musical mists and shadows allowed
him to approach his evasive subjects gently,
as if trying to get closer to the mysteries
of non-existence, remaining unnoticed and
unrecognised. Yet, this kind of guardedness
and secretiveness is hardly evident in Op.134.
There is a spirit of decisive boldness in it,
both confronting and unapologetic. Its clarity
is most reminiscent of late Beethoven - in a
similar way, the tremendous depth of feeling is
matched here by great objectivity. Maybe this
is why, paradoxically, this dark and desperate
work doesn’t leave the listener in the dark; it
lifts the spirit in a similar way Shakespeare’s
tragedies do. Earlier in his life, Shostakovich
created iconic film scores for Hamlet and King
Lear, and one might feel that the Violin Sonata,
one of his most ambitious and sophisticated
works, draws from the same source of
knowledge and inspiration.
The Piano Sonata of Galina Ustvolskaya
If concentration, precision, and boldness are
the connecting thread in our opening program,
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