2023 04 29-30 Ragged Music Festival ENG - Website

Sat 29 

+ Sun 30 

Apr

Programme 

Ragged Music 

Festival 

Sat 29 + Sun 30 Apr 2023 

Sat 29 Apr 

3.00 – 4.05pm / Grote Zaal 

Oestvolskaja, Beethoven, Sjostakovitsj 

Mario Brunello, Alina Ibragimova, Pavel Kolesnikov + 

Samson Tsoy 

7.30 - 9.00pm / Main Hall 

Bach, Janáček, Tavener, Rachmaninov 

Mario Brunello, Alina Ibragimova, Pavel Kolesnikov, 

Elena Stikhina + Samson Tsoy 

10.15 - 11.05pm / Loading dock 

Sjostakovitsj’ laatste symfonie 

Mario Brunello, Alina Ibragimova, Pavel Kolesnikov + 

Slagwerk Den Haag 

During the Ragged Music 

Festival, photographer/visual 

artist Eva Vermandel will 

show some of her works and 

explore a dialogue between 

her works, the building 

and the music. A separate 

English-language handout is 

available for the exposition. 

Cover image: 

Eva Vermandel 

Programme notes: 

Pavel Kolesnikov 

Sun 30 Apr 

11.00 – 12.00am / Main Hall 

Bach en Sjostakovitsj 

Pavel Kolesnikov + Samson Tsoy 

3.00 - 4.20pm / Main Hall 

Moessorgski, Brahms, Sjostakovitsj 



7.30 - 9.00pm / Main Hall 

Tsjaikovski, Strauss, Schnittke 



10.15 - 10.45 pm / Loading dock 

Prokofjevs Assepoester 

Pavel Kolesnikov + Samson Tsoy 

Is your mobile phone off yet? 

Thank you. 

2

Introduction 

The Ragged Music Festival was born in a Victorian classroom of the Ragged School Museum 

in East London. Inspired by the stripped down authenticity of the space, we set out to carve 

out room for honest and adventurous music-making among the noise of everyday life. 

Starting as a small sanctuary, a half-secret 

musical rite, we were thrilled to witness the 

tremendous success of the concept and are 

now bringing it to Amsterdam as an exciting 

new adventure. We will embark on an intense 

two days musical journey together with a small 

group of musicians who we love and admire. 

Our program is devised in such a way that 

every concert is a self-standing statement in 

its own right, while when put together, they 

add up to an epic narrative. You are welcomed 

to pick a concert or two, or to join us for all of 

them and discover the whole story. 

The effect of a space on both the listeners 

and musicians is fascinating: brought to life 

by sound, a space in turn shapes the music 

and our feelings in its own unique personal 

way. There is something ethereal about the 

solid yet airy building of Muziekgebouw. Is 

it even built on firm ground - or on transient 

water? Like a ghost tree from a transparent 

seed, our programme has grown from this 

mysterious ambiguity. The astonishing late 

masterpieces by Shostakovich frame the 

succession of somber visions and revelations 

where mature pieces by his spirit fellows form 

cryptic combinations revealing unsuspected 

rhymes. In their dark autumnal voices, they 

tell a mesmerizing story of transition: between 

evening and night, live breath and vacuum, 

existence and nothingness. 

Pavel Kolesnikov & Samson Tsoy 

3

Programme 

Oestvolskaja, Beethoven, 

Sjostakovitsj 



Sat 29 Apr 2023 

Grote Zaal 

3.00 – 4.05pm 

ca. 65 minutes 

without interval 

Mario Brunello cello 

Alina Ibragimova viool 

Pavel Kolesnikov piano 

Samson Tsoy piano 

Galina Ustvolskaya (1919 - 2006) 

Piano Sonata nr. 6 (1988) 

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 - 1827) 

Cello Sonata No. 5 op. 102 No. 2 in D major (1815) 

1. Allegro con brio 

2. Adagio con molto sentimento d’affetto 

3. Allegro 

This concert will be recorded by 

the NTR for a later broadcast on 

NPO Classic 

Dmitri Shostakovich (1906 - 1975) 

Violin Sonata in G major op. 134 (1968) 

1. Andante 

2. Allegretto 

3. Largo 

4

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, 

5


the short and utterly unforgettable piece that 

opens the program is the most emblematic. 

Galina Ustvolskaya, an avant-garde Soviet 

composer, was a student of Shostakovich. But 

in this strange relationship, it was actually 

Shostakovich who saw himself as the student. 

He predicted that her work “will be valued 

by all who hold truth to be the essential 

element of music”. Nicknamed “the lady with 

a hammer”, she was a bizarre, uncomfortably 

uncompromising character, who sacrificed her 

professional life and ambitions to dedicate 

herself fully to her artistic principles. She was 

aware that her music would be disapproved of 

by the Soviet regime, and kept her artistic work 

largely private for decades. It is hard to say 

whether her oeuvre of 21 pieces is so sparse 

due to this or because she would destroy, or 

in her own words, “exterminate” any work that 

she ultimately didn’t find perfect. ‘There is no 

link whatsoever between my music and that 

of any other composer, living or dead’, claims 

Ustvolskaya in her typical austere manner. She 

also discouraged any analysis of her music. 

Indeed, it is pointless to try to explain the 

impact of her final Piano Sonata. Simply one 

of the most singular, astonishing works of art 

of any time, this is the music that seems to 

transcend its own medium. 

6

Pavel Kolesnikov & Samson Tsoy 

photo: Joss McKinley 

7

Programme 

Bach, Janáček, Tavener, 

Rachmaninov 




Grote Zaal 

7.30 – 9.20pm 


before the interval 


after the interval 




Elena Stikhina sopraan 


This concert will be recorded by 

the NTR for a later broadcast on 

NPO Classic 

8

Programme 

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750) 

Chaconne from Violin Partita No. 2 in D minor BWV 1004 

(cello piccolo) (ca. 1720) 

Leoš Janáček (1854 - 1928) 

Violin Sonata (1914-1915, rev. 1916-1922) 

1 Con moto 

2. Ballada 

3. Allegretto 

4. Adagio 

Interval 

John Tavener (1944 - 2013) 

Akhmatova Songs for soprano and cello (1993) 

·· 

Dante 

·· 

Pushkin and Lermontov 

·· 

Boris Paternak 

·· 

Couplet 

·· 

The Muse 

·· 

Death 

Sergei Rachmaninov (1873 - 1943) 

Symphonic Dances for two pianos op. 45 (1940) 

1. Non allegro – Lento – Tempo I 

2. Andante con moto (Tempo di valse) 

3. Lento assai – Allegro vivace – Lento assai – Allegro vivace 

9


‘I was on the verge of something that didn’t have a true name... A luring slumber... 

A slipping away from myself...”. These lines by Anna Akhmatova, used by John Tavener in 

the last of his Akhmatova Songs, are so haunting. 

They are neither disclosing nor vague; their 

precision lies between words, and it is the 

intonation, the gentle curve, and the special 

glow of the phrase that makes them so 

memorable. Or else, it is that glance into 

the beyond cast by a person who is not 

intimidated by dying that one can see in 

photographs of Akhmatova – not penetrating 

or transfixing, but bypassing, seeing 

through and farther. One of the greatest 

Russian poets whose fate was truly tragic, a 

contemporary and admirer of Shostakovich, 

she was preoccupied with the mysteries of 

life and death throughout her artistic career. 

It wasn’t an exotic interest for her. Having 

lost innumerable friends and loved ones 

to the terrors of the revolution and Stalin’s 

regime, she nicknamed herself ‘a wailer’. 

Her relationship with agony, despair, and 

death was intimate and personal. Gradually, 

through her devotion to her work and much 

suffering, she developed her monumentally 

simple, regally unassuming poetic style. 

Many of her mature pieces appear so blunt 

and transparent that they almost seem banal; 

but they have a strange mesmerizing power 

– as if the true meaning transpires somehow 

through the words, coming from behind or 

beyond them. 

Covert emotional charge 

Perhaps Akhmatova would appreciate this 

concert’s program. She might enjoy its dark 

and cold tones, its restraint, and its covert 

emotional charge. The pieces in this concert 

are like silent guards of a mystery. At times 

otherworldly, at times supernatural, they are 

connected by the direction of their gaze— 

through and beyond, concentrating on things 

that are unseen, unspeakable, and eternal. 

Different intensities or efforts appear to be 

attached to that kind of looking. Sometimes, 

as in the legendary Bach’s Chaconne, it is 

supported by a great sense of fairness and 

sublime order; it is a patient, fearless, and 

accepting way of looking into the unknown. 

In his Akhmatova cycle, John Tavener 

adopts a very different way of looking, as 

if through half-closed eyes, slumbering. 

Nothing is clear, angular, or apparent here; 

the outlines are soft and misty. It could be 

a dreamy, enveloping world, but it is the 

spareness of lines, the transparency of this 

refined ensemble of soprano and cello that 

communicates a clever urgency to this 

marvellous, unusual work. 

In a sequence of somewhat austere and 

introverted works in this concert, Janáček’s 

Violin Sonata provides a shocking contrast. 

There is some holy foolishness about 

Janáček’s visionary musical language. The 

work, which according to the composer 

was an intuitive response to the outbreak 

of World War I, is full of wild and desperate, 

overwhelming energy: it is literally propelled 

into soaring heights in its reckless, manic 

search for meaning. 

10


Masterwork of Rachmaninov 

This concert concludes with a piece that 

augments and amalgamates those three 

ways of looking into the beyond—Bach’s 

profound all-acceptance, the dreamy 

clairvoyance of Tavener, and the heartbreaking 

human desperation of Janáček. 

There is a magnetic inscrutability about 

the majestic and formally brilliant final 

masterwork of Rachmaninov, the Symphonic 

Dances. The simple name and strong, 

clear structure serve only to safeguard 

something truly indescribable, almost 

alien—a chthonic mass of dark, potent, and 

dangerous material. It’s a labyrinth where, 

instead of the Minotaur, one might face 

Medusa; a Pandora’s Box full of prophecies 

in an unknown, perhaps yet non-existent 

language. The multiple layers, references, 

and conundrums in this piece are wrought 

so tightly that the tension is unbearable; 

there is an alchemical transformation 

taking place within that seems to bring it 

to the verge of the archetypical miracle of 

art: waves on a canvas flooding the room; 

a statue walking off its pedestal; sounds 

materializing, incarnating, becoming a new, 

yet undiscovered reality. 

11

Lyrics 

John Kenneth Tavener 

Akhmatova Songs 

Text: Anna Andreyevna Akhmatova 

Данте 

Он и после смерти не вернулся 

В старую Флоренцию свою. 

Этот, уходя, не оглянулся, 

Этому я эту песнь пою. 

Он из ада ей послал проклятье 

И в раю не мог её забыть. 

Пушкин и Лермонтов 

Здесь Пушкина изгнанье началось 

И Лермонтова кончилось изгнанье. 

Здесь горных трав легко благоуханье, 

И только раз мне видеть удалось 

У озера, в густой тени чинары, 

В тот предвечерний и жестокий час — 

Сияние неутолённых глаз 

Бессмертного любовника Тамары. 

Борис Пастернак 

Он награждён каким-то вечным детством, 

Той щедростью и зоркостью светил, 

И вся земля была его наследством, 

А он её со всеми разделил. 

Dante 

And even after death he did not return 

To Florence, his of old. 

In going, he gave no backward glance, 

To him I sing this song... 

From hell he sent his curses upon her, 

And in heaven he could not forget her... 

Pushkin and Lermontov 

Here began Pushkin's exile 

and Lermontov's exile ended. 

Here gentle scent of mountain grasses, 

And only once I managed to see 

Beside the lake, in plane tree's thickest shade 

In that cruel hour before the evening - 

The blaze of his eyes unquenched, 

The deathless lover of Tamara. 

Boris Pasternak 

Endowed with some eternal childhood, 

He shone open-handed, clean of sight, 

The whole earth was his heritage, 

And this with all he shared. 

12

Lyrics 

Двустишие 

От других мне хвала - что зола. 

От тебя и хула - похвала. 

Муза 

Когда я ночью жду её прихода, 

Жизнь, кажется, висит на волоске. 

Что почести, что юность, что свобода 

Пред милой гостьей с дудочкой в руке. 

И вот вошла. Откинув покрывало, 

Внимательно взглянула на меня. 

Ей говорю: “Ты ль Данту диктовала 

Страницы Ада?” Отвечает: “ Я!”. 

Смерть 

1 

Я была на краю чего-то, 

Чему верного нет названья... 

Зазывающая дремота, 

От себя самой ускользание... 

2 

А я уже стою на подступах к чему-то, 

Что достаётся всем, но разною ценой... 

На этом корабле есть для меня каюта 

И ветер в парусах - и страшная минута 

Прощания с моей родной страной. 

Couplet 

For me praise from others - as ashes, 

But from you even blame – is praise. 

The Muse 

At night, as I await her coming, 

Life seems to hang upon a thread, 

And what are honour, youth, or freedom 

Before the kindly guest with pipe in hand? 

Here - she has come. Flung off her veil, 

And searchingly has looked on me. 

I say to her: "Did you dictate to Dante 

The script of Hell?" She answers: "I". 

Death 

I was on the border of something 

Which has no certain name... 

A drowsy summons, 

A slipping away from myself... 

Already I stand at the threshold to 

something, 

The lot of all, but at a varying price... 

On this ship, there is a cabin for me 

And wind in the sails - and the dread moment 

Of the parting with my native land. 

Translation: Mother Thekla, Orthodox Monastery 

of the Assumption Normanby, Whitby, North 

Yorkshire 

13

Programme 

Sjostakovitsj’ laatste 

symfonie 




Loading Dock 

10.15 – 11.05pm 






Slagwerk Den Haag percussie 


Symphony No. 15 op. 141 in A major (1971) 

arr. Viktor Derevianko for piano trio and percussion 

1. Allegretto 

2. Adagio – Largo – Adagio – Largo 

3. Allegretto 

4. Adagio – Allegretto – Adagio – Allegretto 

14


An artist drawing from a dwindling source is a late harvester - sometimes the fruit is 

overripe, sometimes just dry. A late work can be complex, confusing, or excessive - or on 

the contrary, be simplistic and predictable. More often than not, it is recognisable by its 

somewhat jeopardised flow of life energy that we intuitively register. 

In stricter terms it is very rarely ‘the best’ 

work, though it can be unusual, curious, 

touching, humbling, even perplexing. But it 

takes a great artist to take control of this 

changing balance and seize the opportunity 

to achieve something that couldn’t be done 

at the peak of their creative energy; to 

explore those areas that don’t respond to 

lively strength, yet yield to feeble, uncertain 

touch. 

Secretive and quirky 

There is no question that Shostakovich’s 

last works are of that kind. Like a man 

reduced by a terrible disease who suddenly 

discovers he can now pass through narrow 

secret passages, Shostakovich seems 

to use the withering of creative power 

to wander in different artistic territory. 

Perhaps, the 15th Symphony is the pinnacle 

of this expedition, a relatively restrained, 

paired down work that is both immensely 

personal and radically imaginative under 

its surface. Secretive and quirky, it feels 

even more intense and concentrated in 

this astonishing arrangement by Viktor 

Derevianko that was approved by the 

composer himself. Inlaid with numerous 

quotations from Wagner, Rachmaninov, 

Rossini and Glinka as well as Shostakovich’s 

own earlier works, it is an unexplained 

labyrinth that probes the limits of musical 

language. 

So what does it all mean? It seems this 

question is the very essence of what 

Shostakovich himself called ‘a wicked 

symphony’. An unhinged exploration of 

meaning and meaninglessness, it starts with 

an unsettling image of a ‘toyshop coming to 

life’. It is full of gripping, wide-eyed magic 

but while a listener is constantly kept on 

the verge of finally discovering something 

of ultimate importance, of figuring it out, 

the mystery persists. Instead of a solution 

or the final piece of the puzzle, all one is 

offered is another image, as mesmerising 

as it is disturbing. The symphony ends with 

a gentle solo of percussions imitating the 

clinking and jingling of medical devices in 

a hospital ward. This terrifying and poetic 

music that lasts mere moments is so 

unforgettable that one wants to rewind time 

to hear it again. Yet it is gone, and there is 

no answer. Or is the answer in the silence 

that lies beyond? 

15

Programme 

Bach en Sjostakovitsj 



Sun 30 Apr 2023 

Grote Zaal 

11.00 – 12.00am 





16

Programme 


Prelude and Fugue in C major (1950-1951) 

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 - 1750) 

Prelude and Fugue in G minor (WTK II*, 1740-1742) 

Dmitri Shostakovich 

Prelude and Fugue in D major 

Johann Sebastian Bach 

Prelude and Fugue in D minor (WTK II*) 


Prelude and Fugue in D minor 


Prelude and Fugue in G minor (WTK I*, 1722) 

Dmitri Shostakovich / Johann Sebastian Bach 

Prelude in C sharp minor / Fugue in C sharp minor (WTK I*) 

Johann Sebastian Bach / Dmitri Shostakovich 

Prelude in E flat major (WTK I*) / Fugue in E flat major 


Prelude and Fugue in G minor 


Prelude and Fugue in C major (WTK I*) 

* WTK = Das wohltemperierte Klavier 

17


Looking at the program of the Ragged Music Festival, it is easy to see that it relies on a 

multitude of connections, bridges, and associations. It is a complex network of pieces that 

may seem infinitely removed from one another but inexplicably reveal a relationship best 

described, perhaps, as resonance. 

Finding these connections and discovering 

the invisible links is a consuming, laborious, 

yet highly gratifying task. It is fascinating to 

witness this resonance awakening dormant 

forces, with one piece illuminating another 

in such a way that hidden meanings emerge 

and become apparent. This comes as close 

to a seance of magic as a musician can 

induce. 

This concert, which takes place exactly 

halfway through the festival, was conceived 

as a metaphor or a ritual celebrating such 

mutual illumination. It revives and relives 

the poignant dialogue between Johann 

Sebastian Bach and Dmitri Shostakovich 

through their Preludes and Fugues, a music 

form that is itself intrinsically dialogic in 

nature, in a way that has never been done 

before. 

Monument 

Bach’s double collection of preludes and 

fugues in every key, Das wohltemperierte 

Klavier, comprising two volumes of twentyfour 

and completed in the first half of the 

XVIII century, is revered by musicians as 

one of the greatest monuments of Western 

music. Though ironically introduced by 

Bach merely as a didactic and entertaining 

collection for musicians and amateurs (‘for 

the profit and use of musical youth desirous 

of learning, and especially for the pastime 

of those already skilled in this study’), it is 

truly a universe in its own right. The themes, 

emotions, and inventions found in these 

forty-eight pieces seem infinite, not to 

mention their formal beauty and perfection 

of Bach’s polyphonic technique. 

In turn, Shostakovich’s cycle of twenty-four 

preludes and fugues, written in 1950/51, 

serves as a direct response to Bach. Since 

the rediscovery of Bach in the XIX century, 

he has been a subject of ever-growing 

admiration, with many musicians paying 

tribute to him in one way or another. 

Shostakovich, in particular, was possibly the 

first major composer to openly ‘converse’ 

with composers of the past through his 

work. His pieces, especially in the late 

period, are full of quotations and references 

(both direct or hidden, and sometimes even 

mock), from Bizet and Rossini to Wagner 

and Ustvolskaya. However, Shostakovich’s 

relationship with Bach seems more profound, 

respectful, intense, and ultimately, closer. In 

his cycle of preludes and fugues he doesn’t 

‘play’ with references, doesn’t ‘use’ Bach’s 

work to enrich his own. In a way, he does 

the contrary: entering the domain of Bach 

knowingly and respectfully while bringing in 

his very own sensibility and technique. There 

is no sense of rivalry or competitiveness 

here, nor interestingly, a sense of worship. 

Shostakovich’s cycle is distinctly his own - 

18


written in his own language, his own style, 

exploring subjects and emotions that 

are recognisably his. The overall sense is 

that it was encouraged, inspired, perhaps 

even initiated by Bach, with a wonderful 

warmth and purity in this interaction across 

centuries. 

Kinship 

Despite the gentle use of techniques 

reminiscent of Bach’s, with a nod to their 

influence, Shostakovich’s cycle is remarkably 

independent. Powerful in its own right, it 

doesn’t necessarily make one think of Bach. 

It is only when the two are brought together 

that their deeply rooted kinship becomes 

apparent. 

In this recital, the preludes and fugues of 

two great composers will be played with two 

pianos, sometimes individually, sometimes 

passed between two pianists, and sometimes 

shared. There is even a moment when a 

prelude of one composer is matched with a 

fugue by the other. While some may find this 

gesture unnecessary and even eccentric, 

we think of it as a beautiful and meaningful 

symbol of a dialogue transcending time. 

19

Programme 

Moessorgski, Brahms, 

Sjostakovitsj 




Grote Zaal 

3.00 – 4.20pm 








20

Programme 

Modest Mussorgsky (1839 - 1881) 

Songs and Dances of Death (Песни и пляски смерти) (1875/1877) 

·· 

Lullaby (Колыбельная) 

·· 

Serenade (Серенада) 

·· 

Trepak (Трепак) 

·· 

The field Marshall (Полководец) 

Johannes Brahms (1833 - 1897) 

Violin Sonata No. 1 op. 78 in G major (1878-1879) 

1. Vivace, ma non troppo 

2. Adagio 

3. Allegro molto moderato 


Seven Romances on Poems by Alexander Blok (1967) 

1. Song of Ophelia 

2. Gamayun, the Bird of Prophecy 

3. We Were Together 

4. Gloom Enwraps the Sleeping City 

5. The Storm 

6. Secret Signs 

7. Music 

21


‘The meaning of life is that it stops’ (Franz Kafka) 

Initially, we approached the idea of this afternoon program with a sense of hesitation: 

should we even do something like this? We almost felt embarrassed, while also being 

tempted by the beautiful and haunting combination of pieces that we came up with. We 

thought about it for days, weeks even, and we began to realise that that what at first felt 

macabre and extreme, was much richer and more suggestive. 

Just like the brief, striking quote from Kafka 

- by contemplating it, the cold grip starts 

to release; its initial pitch blackness softens 

with hints of colour; and the terrifying 

abruptness will reveal, perhaps, infinite, 

inviting vastness. 

Songs and Dances of Death of Modest 

Mussorgsky 

It might be that it was the opening piece that 

so terrified us. Mussorgsky’s song cycle truly 

is an engrossing monstrosity. This strange 

and outstanding piece might be simply the 

most direct and revolting depiction of Death 

in the history of music, an attempt to look 

straight into Death’s face. To be fair, there 

exists a vast number of works, particularly in 

the XIX century song repertoire, that seem to 

belong to this same tradition. None of them 

come close to the effect of Mussorgsky’s 

songs. The reason might be that if we 

want to try and “explain” an extraordinarily 

singular work by a maverick artist, we come 

to the conclusion that Mussorgsky’s artistic 

method is devoid of artifice. There is no 

implied complexity nor unnecessary detail. 

The settings are so sparse they almost seem 

primitive, but that lends them an almost 

documental, photographic force. Needless 

to say, the simplicity of Mussorgsky’s style 

is deceptive. A contemporary of Brahms and 

Tchaikovsky, he worked during the heyday 

of Romanticism in music. Very much ahead 

of his time in so many ways, his posthumous 

influence was very significant and extended 

to such vastly different composers as Ravel, 

Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Shostakovich, 

to name just a few. But the rough and 

unsophisticated Songs and Dances of 

Death remain unmatched – even in the 

pandemonium of disturbing images the 

music of the XX century brings forth. 

Violin Sonata in G major of Johannes 

Brahms 

The angelic entry of Brahms’ G major Sonata 

may be confusing, even uncomfortably 

escapist. The tender and warm colours of 

the first movement seem so far removed, 

almost unreal. Yet it is the progress of this 

complex and rather mysterious piece that 

reveals its deeply tragic core. It is suggested 

that the piece, undeniably considered one 

of Brahms’ most refined works, was initially 

conceived as a sonatina for Brahms’ beloved 

godson Felix Schumann who was studying 

violin. In a letter to Clara Schumann, Brahms 

attached a sketch of the opening melody 

of the second movement, mentioning that 

it expressed his feelings for Clara and Felix 

22


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 

23

Lyrics 

Modest Mussorgsky 

Songs and dances of death 

Text: Arseny Arkad’yevich Golenishchev-Kutuzov (1848 - 1913) 

Колыбельная 

Стонет ребёнок. Свеча, нагорая, 

Tускло мерцает кругом. 

Целую ночь колыбельку качая, 

Мать не забылася сном. 

Раным-ранёхонько в дверь осторожно 

Смерть сердобольная стук! 

Вздрогнула мать, оглянулась тревожно. 

‘Полно пугаться, мой друг! 

Бледное утро уж смотрит в окошко. 

Плача, тоскуя, любля,Ты утомилась, 

вздремни-ка немножко, 

Я посижу за тебя. 

Угомонить ты дитя не сумела. 

Слаще тебя я спою. 

‘Тише! ребёнок мой мечется, бьётся, 

Душу терзая мою!’ 

‘Ну, да со мною он скоро уймётся. 

Баюшки, баю, баю.’ 

‘Щёчки бледнеют, слабеет дыханье. 

Да замолчи-же, молю.’ 

‘Доброе знаменье, стихнет страданье, 


‘Прочь ты, проклятая! 

Лаской своею сгубишь ты радость мою!’ 

‘Нет, мирный сон я младенцу навею. 


‘Сжалься, пожди допевать хоть мгновенье, 

Lullaby 

A child moans… A candle, burning low, 

Casts its dull flicker all around. 

All through the night, as she rocks the cradle, 

A mother has not slept. 

Early in the morning comes the gentle knock 

Of Death, the compassionate one, at the door! 

The mother shudders, anxiously looking around 

her… 

‘There’s no need to be afraid, my friend! 

The pale morning is peeping through the 

window… 

You have worn yourself out with crying, longing, 

loving, 

So rest a while, my dear, 

And I will take your place at his side. 

You couldn’t soothe the little child, 

But I can sing more sweetly than you.’ 

‘Shhh! The child is tossing and turning, 

My heart grieves to see him thus!’ 

‘Come now, with me he will soon calm down, 

Hushaby, hushaby-hush.’ 

‘His cheeks are so pale, his breathing so shallow… 

Please be quiet, I beg you!’ 

‘That’s a good sign, his suffering will soon be 

over, 


‘Be away with you, accursed woman! 

You will destroy my joy with your caresses!’ 

‘No, I will waft the sleep of peace over the infant, 


‘Have pity! Cease your singing for just a moment, 

24

Lyrics 

Страшную песню твою!’ 

‘Видишь, уснул он под тихое пенье. 


Серенада 

Нега волшебная, ночь голубая, 

Трепетный сумрак весны. 

Внемлет, поникнув головкой, больная 

Шопот ночной тишины. 

Сон не смыкает блестящие очи, 

Жизнь к наслажденью зовёт, 

А под окошком в молчаньи полночи 

Смерть серенаду поёт: 

‘В мраке неволи суровой и тесной 

Молодость вянет твоя; 

Рыцарь неведомый, силой чудесной 

Освобожу я тебя. 

Встань, посмотри на себя: красотою Лик 

твой прозрачный блестит, 

Щёки румяны, волнистой косою 

Стан твой, как тучей обвит. 

Пристальных глаз голубое сиянье, 

Ярче небес и огня; 

Зноем полуденным веет дыханье. 

Ты обольстила меня. 

Слух твой пленился моей серенадой, 

Рыцаря шопот твой звал, 

Рыцарь пришёл за последней наградой: 

Час упоенья настал. 

Нежен твой стан, упоителен трепет. 

О, задушу я тебя 

В крепких объятьях: любовный мой лепет. 

Слушай!... молчи!... Ты моя!’ 

Cease your terrible song!’ 

‘See now, my quiet song has sung him to sleep, 


Serenade 

Languid enchantment, the blue of the night, 

The quivering half-light of spring. 

Ailing, her head hung low, the young woman 

Listens to the whisper of night’s stillness. 

Sleep cannot close her shining eyes, 

Life’s pleasures summon her still, 

But under her window, in the silence of midnight, 

Death sings this soft serenade: 

‘In the gloom of confinement, severe and narrow, 

Your youth is fading; 

But I, a mysterious knight, 

Will free you with my wondrous power. 

Rise and look on yourself: your countenance 

Shines with limpid beauty, 

Your cheeks are flushed, and your rippling 

tresses 

Encircle your waist like clouds. 

The radiant blue of your eager eyes 

Is brighter than heaven or flame; 

Your breath is as the midday heat… 

You have bewitched me. 

Your hearing is captivated by my serenade, 

Your whispering summoned this knight, 

Who has come for his final reward: 

The hour of rapture is nigh. 

Your form is fair and your trembling – 

enchanting… 

Ah, I shall smother you in my strong embrace: 

Listen to my words of love! 

Be silent!.... You are mine!’ 

25

Lyrics 

Трепак 

Лес да поляны, безлюдье кругом. 

Вьюга и плачет и стонет, 

Чуется, будто во мраке ночном, 

Злая, кого-то хоронит; 

Глядь, так и есть! В темноте мужика 

Смерть обнимает, ласкает, 

С пьяненьким пляшет вдвоём трепак а, 

На ухо песнь напевает: 

‘Ой, мужичок, старичок убогой, 

Пьян напился, поплёлся дорогой, 

А мятель-то, ведьма, поднялась, взыграла. 

С поля в лес дремучий невзначай загнала. 

Горем, тоской да нуждой томимый, 

Ляг, прикорни, да усни, родимый! 

Я тебя, голубчик мой, снежком согрею, 

Вкруг тебя великую игру затею. 

Взбей-ка постель, ты мятель-лебёдка! 

Гей, начинай, запевай погодка! 

Сказку, да такую, чтоб всю ночь тянулась, 

Чтоб пьянчуге крепко под неё заснулось! 

Ой, вы леса, небеса, да тучи, 

Темь, ветерок, да снежок летучий! 

Свейтесь пеленою, снежной, пуховою; 

Ею, как младенца, старичка прикрою... 

Спи, мой дружок, мужичок счастливый, 

Лето пришло, расцвело! 

Над нивой солнышко смеётся да серпы 

гляют, 

Песенка несётся, голубки летают...’ 

Полководец 

Грохочет битва, блешут брони, 

Орудья жадные ревут, 

Бегут полки, несутся кони 

И реки красные текут. 

Trepak (Russian Dance) 

Forests and glades, not a soul in sight. 

A blizzard wails and howls. 

In the darkness of night, It is as if someone is 

being buried by some evil force: 

Just look – it is so! In the darkness, 

Death tenderly embraces a peasant, 

Leading the drunken man in a lively dance, 

And singing this song in his ear: 

‘Oh, poor peasant, pitiful old man, 

Drunk and stumbling on your way, 

And the blizzard, like a witch, rose up and raged, 

Driving you by chance from the field into the 

deep woods. 

Oppressed by grief and sadness and want, 

Lay down, rest and sleep, my dear! 

I will warm you, my friend, with a cover of snow, 

Weaving a great game around you. 

Whip up a bed, oh swan-like snowstorm! 

Hey, you elements, strike up a song, 

Spin a tale that will last all night, 

So that that old drunk might sleep soundly to its 

strains! 

Hey, you woods and heavens and storm clouds, 

Darkness and winds and driving snow! 

Spin him a shroud of downy snow, 

And I will swathe the old man, like a new-born 

child… 

Sleep, my friend, you fortunate peasant, 

Summer has come, all in bloom! 

The sun smiles down on the cornfield and the 

sickles glimmer, 

A song wafts across the air and the doves are 

flying…’ 

Field marshal 

The battle rages, the armour flashes, 

Bronze canons roar, 

Regiments charge, horses gallop by 

And red rivers flow. 

26

Lyrics 

Пылает полдень, люди бьются; 

Склонилось солнце, бой сильней; 

Закат бледнеет, но дерутся 

Враги все яростней и злей. 

И пала ночь на поле брани. 

Дружины в мраке разошлись... 

Всё стихло, и в ночном тумане 

Стенанья к небу поднялись. 

Тогда, озарена луною, 

На боевом своём коне, 

Костей сверкая белизною, 

Явилась смерть; и в тишине, 

Внимая вопли и молитвы, 

Довольства гордого полна, 

Как полководец место битвы 

Кругом объехала она. 

На холм поднявшись, оглянулась, 

Остановилась, улыбнулась... 

И над равниной боевой 

Раздался голос роковой: 

‘Кончена битва! я всех победила! 

Все предо мной вы смирились, бойцы! 

Жизнь вас поссорила, я помирила! 

Дружно вставайте на смотр, мертвецы! 

Маршем торжественным мимо пройдите, 

Войско моё я хочу сосчитать; 

В землю потом свои кости сложите, 

Сладко от жизни в земле отдыхать! 

Годы незримо пройдут за годами, 

В людях исчезнет и память о вас. 

Я не забуду и громко над вами 

Пир буду править в полуночный час! 

Пляской тяжёлою землю сырую 

Я притопчу, чтобы сень гробовую 

Кости покинуть вовек не могли, 

Чтоб никогда вам не встать из земли!’ 

Midday burns and men still fight; 

The sun sinks low, yet the battle rages ever more; 

Twilight fades, yet enemies are locked 

More violently, more fiercely in conflict. 

Night falls on the field of battle. 

Legions disperse in the darkness… 

All is calm, and in the darkness of night 

Groans rise up to the sky. 

And then, in the moonlight, 

On her warhorse, 

Her white bones shining brightly, 

Death appears; and in the silence, 

Listening to the groans and prayers 

With pride and pleasure, 

She bestrides the field of battle 

Like a field marshal. 

From atop of a mound she looks around, 

Stops and smiles… 

And across the war-torn plain 

Rings the sound of her fateful voice: 

‘The battle is over! I have vanquished you all! 

You have all surrendered before me, ye warriors! 

Life set you at odds, but I have reconciled you! 

Stand to attention for review, ye dead! 

March by in solemn procession, 

I wish to account for my troops; 

Then lay down your bones in the earth, 

And rest sweetly rest, life’s labours down! 

The years will pass by imperceptibly, 

And you will slip from the memory of the living. 

Yet I will not forget you and will host 

A banquet at midnight over your bones! 

The heavy tread of my dance will trample down 

The moist earth, so that your bones may never 

more 

Escape the fastness of the grave, 

So that you may never more rise from the grave!’ 

Translation: © Philip Ross Bullock 

27

Lyrics 


Seven Romances on Poems by Alexander Blok, op. 127 

Text: Alexander Blok 

1. Песня Офелии 

Разлучаясь с девой милой, друг, 

Ты клялся мне любить!... 

Уезжая в край постылый, 

Клятву данную хранить!... 

Там, за Данией счастливой, 

Берега твои во мгле... 

Вал сердитый, говорливый 

Моет слёзы на скале... 

Милый воин не вернётся, 

Весь одетый в серебро... 

В гробе тяжко всколыхнётся 

Бант и чёрное перо... 

2. Гамаюн птица вещая 

На гладях бесконечных вод, 

Закатом в пурпур облечённых, 

Она вещает и поёт, 

Не в силах крыл поднять смятённых... 

Вещает иго злых татар, 

Вещает казней ряд кровавых, 

И трус, и голод, и пожар, 

Злодеев силу, гибель правых... 

Предвечным ужасом объят, 

Прекрасный лик горит любовью, 

Но вещей правдою звучат 

Уста, запекшиеся кровью! 

1. Ophelia’s song 

When you left me, my dear friend 

you promised to love me 

You left for a distant land, 

and swore to keep your promise! 

Beyond the happy land of Denmark, 

the shores are in darkness... 

The angry waves wash 

over the rocks... 

My warrior shall not return, 

all dressed in silver... 

The bow, and the black feather will 

restlessly lie in their grave 

2. Gamayun, the prophet bird 

On endless waters’ smooth expanse, 

by sunset clad in purple splendour, 

in Delphic tone she ever sings, 

but cannot spread her weakened wings... 

She prophesies the Tartar yoke, 

its course of bloody executions, 

and quake, and famine, and alarm, 

the righteous’ downfall, evil’s power... 

In dark primeval terror wreathed, 

her countenance aflame with passion, 

she speaks and prophecies resound 

through truthful lips with bloodstains clotted. 

28

Lyrics 

3. Мы были вместе 

Мы были вместе, помню я... 

Ночь волновалась, скрипка пела, 

Ты в эти дни была моя, 

Ты с каждым часом хорошела. 

Сквозь тихое журчанье струй, 

Сквозь тайну женственной улыбки 

К устам просился поцелуй, 

Просились в сердце звуки скрипки... 

4. Город спит 

Город спит, окутан мглою, 

Чуть мерцают фонари... 

Там далёко, за Невою, 

Вижу отблески зари. 

В этом дальнем отраженьи, 

В этих отблесках огня 

Притаилось пробужденье 

Дней, тоскливых для меня... 

5. Буря 

О, как безумно за окном 

Ревёт, бушует буря злая, 

Несутся тучи, льют дождём, 

И ветер воет, замирая! 

Ужасна ночь! В такую ночь 

Мне жаль людей, лишённых крова, 

Сожаленье гонит прочь - 

В объятья холода сырого! 

Бороться с мраком и дождём, 

Страдалцев участь разделяя... 

О, как безумно за окном 

Бушует ветер, изнывая! 

3. We were together 

We were together, I recall... 

Violins sang in vibrant darkness 

day after day you were my own, 

with every hour you grew more fair. 

The secrets of a woman’s smile, 

the quiet whispering of breezes 

set tender kisses on my lips, 

and filled my heart with violin songs. 

4. Gloom enwraps the sleeping city, 

Gloom enwraps the sleeping city, 

lanterns flickering and pale... 

Daybreak’s distant scintillations 

gleam beyond the dark Neva. 

In this faraway reflection, 

in these glimmerings of flame 

lay concealed the origin 

of my forsaken, joyless days... 

5. The tempest 

Beyond my window, fierce and wild, 

the savage tempest roars and rages, 

with scudding storm clouds, streaming rain 

and howling wind that fades to silence! 

An awful night! On such a night 

I pity those bereft of shelter. 

A deep compassion drives me forth 

to share the winter’s damp embraces!... 

To strive against the gloom and rain, 

at one with outcasts, doomed to suffer... 

Beyond my window, fierce and wild, 

the raging wind sinks in exhaustion! 

29

Lyrics 

6. Тайные знаки 

Разгораются тайные знаки 

На глухой, непробудной стене. 

Золотые и красные маки 

Надо мной тяготеют во сне. 

Укрываюсь в ночные пещеры 

И не помню суровых чудес. 

На заре голубые химеры 

Смотрят в зеркале ярких небес. 

Убегаю в прошедшие миги, 

Закрываю от страха глаза, 

На листах холодеющей книги - 

Золотая девичья коса. 

Надо мной небосвод уже низок, 

Чёрный сон тяготеет в груди. 

Мой конец предначертанный близок, 

И война, и пожар - впереди... 

7. Музыка 

В ночь, когда уснёт тревога 

И город скроется во мгле, 

О, сколько музыки у бога, 

Какие звуки на земле! 

Что буря жизни, 

Если розы твои цветут мне и горят! 

Что человеческие слёзы, 

Когда румянится закат! 

Прими, Владычица вселенной, 

Сквозь кровь, сквозь муки, сквозь гроба 

Последней страсти кубок пенный 

От недостойного раба. 

6. Secret signs 

The secret signs appear 

on the impenetrable wall. 

Golden and crimson poppies 

blossom in my dreams. 

I drown in the caverns of night, 

and forget the magic of my dreams. 

My fanciful thoughts 

are reflected in the bright heavens. 

These short moments will disappear, 

and the beautiful maiden’s 

eyes will close, 

like the pages of a book. 

The canopy of the stars is now low, 

the darkest dreams lie heavy in the heart. 

My end is near, fate has ordained it, 

with war and fire that lie before me... 

7. Music 

When the night brings peace, 

and the city is bathed in darkness, 

how heavenly is the music, 

what wonderful sounds can be heard! 

Forget the stormy hours of life, 

when you can see the roses bloom! 

Forget the sorrows of mankind, 

when you see the crimson sunset. 

O Sovereign of the Universe, 

accept through pain, through blood, 

this cup, filled to the brim 

with the last passions of your unworthy slave. 

Translation: Anne Evans © 

Reprinted with permission from LiederNet Archive 

30

All musicians 


photo: Eva Vermandel 

Alina Ibragimova 

photo: Eva Vermandel 

Samson Tsoy 

photo: Joss McKinley 

Mario Brunello 

photo: Giulio Favotto 


photo: Elisabeth Melchior 

Elena Stikhina 

photo: Kseniaparisphoto 

31

Programme 

Tsjaikovski, Strauss, 

Schnittke 




Grote Zaal 

7.30 – 9.20pm 


before the interval 


after the interval 






32

Programme 

Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893) 

Piano Trio op. 50 in A minor (1881-1882) 

I. Pezzo elegiaco 

II. Tema. Andante con moto 

IIa. Var. 1 

IIb. Var. 2, Più mosso 

IIc. Var. 3, Allegro moderato 

IId. Var. 4, L’istesso tempo 

IIe. Var. 5, L’istesso tempo 

IIf. Var. 6, Tempo di valse 

IIg. Var. 7, Allegro moderato 

IIh. Var. 8, Fuga. Allegro moderato 

IIi. Var. 9, Andante flebile, ma non tanto 

IIj. Var. 10, Tempo di mazurka. Con brio 

IIk. Var. 11, Moderato 

IIl. Var. 12 - Coda 

Interval 

Richard Strauss (1864 - 1949) 

Drei Lieder der Ophelia op. 67 (1918) 

1. Wie erkenn’ ich mein Treulieb 

2. Guten Morgen, ‘s ist Sankt Valentinstag 

3. Sie trugen ihn auf der Bahre bloss 

Morgen! op. 27 nr. 4 (1894) 

Alfred Schnittke (1934 - 1998) 

Epiloog from Peer Gynt for cello, piano and tape (1993) 

33


Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s strong aversion to piano trios is well documented; in fact he couldn’t 

stand the idea of an ensemble comprising a string instrument and piano (as opposed to a 

piano in an accompanying role). On a number of occasions, he expressly refused to write 

a trio, yet it was precisely this formation that he chose for a memorial tribute to his very 

dear colleague and friend, Nikolai Rubinstein. It’s as if he wanted to augment his pain. 

On the day of Tchaikovsky’s death, some 

twelve years later, Rachmaninov began 

writing his D minor trio in Memory of the 

Great Artist. Rachmaninov, in his turn, 

was granted a memorial trio in 1943 by 

Alexander Goldenweiser – more celebrated 

as a music teacher than a composer – and 

a year later Shostakovich wrote his E 

minor trio in memory of his close friend 

Ivan Sollertinsky. The first in this mournful 

sequence, Tchaikovsky’s work is possibly 

the greatest and the most original. As often 

with Tchaikovsky, it is the amazing synergy 

of very unorthodox ideas and relatively 

simple, classical means that make the work 

soar. It exists as if in two different planes: 

the first movement in the earthly one, with 

its overwhelming waves of passion and 

suffering, ecstasy and despair; and the 

variations – in the heavenly plane, pure, 

enchanted, but increasingly alienating in its 

beauty as the work progresses. In some way, 

this shimmering and shining celestial world 

is not dissimilar to Mahler’s Das himmlische 

Leben of the 4th Symphony, even though 

Tchaikovsky’s solution for the ending of the 

piece is resolutely – one may say, typically! – 

non-Mahlerian. 

On the very border of the unknown 

The Ophelia songs are in line with the other 

settings of crumbling disintegrating psyche 

by Strauss, notably Salomé and Elektra. It is 

a curious collection; fragile and almost jewellike, 

at the same time they are fine studies 

exploring the limits of tonality (particularly 

in the second song), of the world familiar 

and organic to Strauss; they carefully tiptoe 

on the very border of the unknown. There 

is an unusual link between this set and the 

following song that occurred without us 

planning it. While Ophelia’s bitterness due 

to her lover’s broken promise (second in the 

set) begins with the words ‘Guten Morgen’, 

the song Morgen! itself, written over twenty 

years before, belongs to the set of songs 

composed by Strauss for his wife Pauline 

de Ahna as a wedding gift. One of Strauss’ 

most beloved masterpieces it is a true 

miracle of great, elegiac beauty. It consists 

of paradoxes: brief and very economically 

written, it feels infinite and majestically vast; 

its euphoric greeting is set in the bittersweet 

tone of a farewell; and the qualities of 

musical language itself are peculiarly 

reminiscent of a late style – perhaps, most of 

all, of the language of the Four Last Songs. 

A realm of shadows 

We devised our festival program as an 

exploration of transience, the theme of 

transformation and transition from the 

familiar into the unknown. Alfred Schnittke, a 

somewhat Faustian figure in the XX century 

34


music, is himself the most fascinating 

embodiment of ‘being in between’. His 

intricate roots and family story made him 

essentially an eternal outsider. Jewish 

and German born, he spent most of his 

life in the USSR, returning to Germany 

only at the end of his life - a return that 

obviously couldn’t fully mean a return to 

a motherland. Classically inclined in his 

stylistic preferences, he was nevertheless 

strongly influenced by Shostakovich - and 

eventually, after experimenting with both 

dodecaphony and popular styles of music, 

proceeded to develop his evocative and 

complex polystylistic aesthetic that became 

his trademark - only to withdraw from it in 

his last years. In 1985, shortly before starting 

his work with John Neumeier on their new 

ballet Peer Gynt, he suffered a stroke, the 

first in a series, that left him in a coma. He 

experienced clinical death (which later 

happened two more times), but recovered. 

Undoubtedly, this event profoundly changed 

him, but the ballet Peer Gynt had also 

become a threshold realm for him, a point 

of no return. In 1988 he confessed that 

‘things [were] different: [I] no longer see 

this crystalline structure, only incessantly 

shifting, unstable forms. – Our world seems… 

to be a world of illusions, unlimited and 

unending. There is a realm of shadows in it.’ 

Dimension, the ‘outside reality’, the ‘soundspace’ 

where Peer Gynt is reunited with 

Solveig. Perhaps never in the history of art 

has ‘the otherworldly’ been presented so 

convincingly and vividly. The composer said 

in an interview, ‘I feel the fourth dimension 

utopically. And the Epilogue is an attempt 

to express the shadows of the fourth 

dimensions that are given to us by this life. 

It is not surrealism, but a realism that is of a 

different kind than earthly: it is a beginning 

of a new spiral turn.’ 

The Epilogue from the ballet was arranged 

for a chamber ensemble by the composer 

himself, following a request by Mstislav 

Rostropovich. It is the last part of the ballet 

that was added to Ibsen’s story by Neumeier 

and Schnittke. It takes it to the Fourth 

35

Liedteksten 

Richard Strauss 

Drei Lieder der Ophelia, op. 67 nr. 1-3 

Text: Karl Joseph Simrock free after William Shakespeare (1564 - 1616) 

Wie erkenn' ich mein Treulieb 

Wie erkenn‘ ich mein Treulieb 

Vor den Andern nun? 

An dem Muschelhut und Stab 

Und den Sandalschuh‘n? 

Er ist tot und lange hin, 

Tot und hin, Fräulein. 

Ihm zu Häupten grünes Gras, 

Ihm zu Fuß ein Stein.—O, ho! 

Auf seinem Bahrtuch, weiß wie Schnee, 

Viel liebe Blumen trauern: 

Sie gehn zu Grabe naß, o weh, 

Vor Liebesschauern. 

How should I your true-love know 

From another one? 

By his cockle bat and' staff 

And his sandal shoon. 

He is dead and gone, lady, 

He is dead and gone; 

At his head a grass-green turf, 

At his heels a stone. O, ho! 

White his shroud as the mountain snow, 

Larded all with sweet flowers; 

Which bewept to the grave did not go 

With true-love showers. 

Guten Morgen, 's ist Sankt Valentinstag 

Guten Morgen, 's ist Sankt Valentinstag, 

So früh vor Sonnenschein 

Ich junge Maid am Fensterschlag 

Will euer Valentin sein. 

Der junge Mann thät Hosen an, 

That auf die Kammerthür, 

Ließ ein die Maid, die als ‚ne Maid 

Ging nimmermehr herfür. 

Bei Sanct Niklas und Charitas! 

Ein unverschämt Geschlecht! 

Ein junger Mann thut‘s, wenn er kann, 

Fürwahr, das ist nicht recht. 

Sie sprach: Eh‘ ihr gescherzt mit mir, 

Verspracht ihr mich zu frei‘n. 

Ich bräch‘s auch nicht, bei‘m Sonnenlicht, 

Wär‘st du nicht kommen herein. 

To-morrow is Saint Valentine's day, 

All in the morning bedtime, 

And I a maid at your window, 

To be your Valentine. 

Then up he rose and donn'd his clo'es 

And dupp'd the chamber door, 

Let in the maid, that out a maid 

Never departed more. 

By Gis and by Saint Charity, 

Alack, and fie for shame! 

Young men will do't if they come to't 

By Cock, they are to blame. 

Quoth she, 'Before you tumbled me, 

You promis'd me to wed.' 

He answers: 'So would I 'a' done, by yonder sun, 

An thou hadst not come to my bed.' 

36

Liedteksten 

Sie trugen ihn auf der Bahre bloss 

Sie trugen ihn auf der Bahre bloß, 

Leider ach leider den Liebsten! 

Manche Träne fiel in des Grabes Schoß: 

Fahr’ wohl, meine Taube! 

Mein junger frischer Hansel ist’s der mir gefällt, 

Und kommt er nimmermehr? 

Er ist tot, o weh! 

In dein Todbett geh, 

Er kommt dir nimmermehr. 

Sein Bart war weiß wie Schnee, 

Sein Haupt wie Flachs dazu: 

Er ist hin, er ist hin, 

Kein Trauern bringt Gewinn: 

Mit seiner Seele Ruh! 

Und mit allen Christenseelen! darum bet’ ich!— 

Gott sei mit euch. 

They bore him barefac'd on the bier 

(Hey non nony, nony, hey nony) 

And in his grave rain'd many a tear. 

Fare you well, my dove! 

[For] bonny sweet Robin is all my joy. 

And will he not come again? 

No, no, he is dead; 

Go to thy deathbed; 

He never will come again. 

His beard was as white as snow, 

All flaxen was his poll. 

He is gone, he is gone, 

And we cast away moan. 

God 'a'mercy on his soul! And of all Christian 

souls, I pray God. God b' wi' you. 

Morgen! op. 27 nr. 4 

Text: John Henry Mackay (1864 - 1933) 

Und morgen wird die Sonne wieder scheinen, 

Und auf dem Wege, den ich gehen werde, 

Wird uns, die Glücklichen, sie wieder einen 

Inmitten dieser sonne-athmenden Erde . . . 

Und zu dem Strand, dem weiten, 

wogenblauen, 

Werden wir still und langsam niedersteigen, 

Stumm werden wir uns in die Augen schauen, 

Und auf uns sinkt des Glückes stummes 

Schweigen . . . 

And tomorrow the sun will shine again 

And on the path that I shall take, 

It will unite us, happy ones, again, 

Amid this same sun-breathing earth ... 

And to the shore, broad, blue-waved, 

We shall quietly and slowly descend, 

Speechless we shall gaze into each other’s 

eyes, 

And the speechless silence of bliss shall fall 

on us ... 

Translation © Richard Stokes 

37

Programme 

Prokofjevs Assepoester 




Loading Dock 

10.15 – 10.45pm 

ca. 30 minutes 




Sergei Prokofiev (1891 – 1953) 

Suite from Cinderella op. 87 for 2 piano’s (1944) 

arr. Mikhail Pletnev 

38


So it’s all over. Our festival is finished, and the concert hall is empty. The adventure has 

come to an end - or has it? What is the end of a trip into the beyond? Is there something 

else still there? And if not, maybe it’s a good time to have fun? 

This very last concert of the Ragged Music 

Festival is a kind of addition, a playful 

postscript to an intense immersive journey 

we aimed to create. Stylistically speaking, it 

deliberately doesn’t belong to the network of 

bridges and associations we were carefully 

building. Or maybe it does…you tell us! 

What is definite is that we wanted to finish 

this off on a lighter note - with a joke, with 

a dance, with a miniature firework. Yet even 

now we are not certain what it will be like. 

After all, we are all in the hands of music 

here, and Prokofiev’s Cinderella is a mercurial 

and unpredictable work. ‘It’s a fairy tale’, you 

may say. And we agree – but beware: this is a 

fairy tale about a fairy tale coming true. Let’s 

see where it goes! 

39

Biographies 

Composers 

Since the 19th-century Bach 

revival Johann Sebastian 

Bach (1685 - 1750) has 

been generally regarded 

as one of the greatest 

composers in the history 

of Western music. Like no 

other composer before him, 

Bach knew how to combine 

simplicity and complexity, 

emotion and musical 

architecture, spiritual 

content and thoughtful 

form. As a composer, he was 

not only groundbreaking 

but also extremely prolific, 

given that he gave over 250 

cantatas to his name. He was 

also a gifted harpsichordist 

and organist. 

Ludwig van Beethoven 

(1770 - 1827) was taught by 

court organist and composer 

Christian Gottlob Neefe, 

who introduced him to the 

ideas of C.Ph.E. Bach and to 

the humanistic worldview of 

the Freemasons. In Vienna, 

he initially became famous 

mainly as a piano virtuoso 

and improviser. In 1815 his 

damaged hearing forced 

him to quit as a performing 

pianist. Beethoven’s hearing 

40 

loss did not prevent him 

from composing music. The 

depth he achieved in his late 

compositions are a miracle 

of human strength and 

concentration. 

Johannes Brahms (1833 - 

1897) wrote his first 

compositions at the age of 

eighteen. During a concert 

tour with Hungarian violinist 

Eduard Reményi, Brahms 

met Franz Liszt and Robert 

Schumann. Schumann, 

greatly impressed and 

delighted by the 20-yearold’s 

talent, published an 

article which led to the first 

publication of Brahms’s 

works under his own name. 

Brahms feeled deeply 

for Clara Schumann and 

their intensely emotional 

platonic relationship lasted 

until Clara’s death. In 1862, 

Brahms settled in Vienna, 

where he gave many 

concerts and made concert 

tours. After 1881, Brahms 

engaged more and more 

intensively in composing. 

The Czech composer Leoš 

Janáček (1854 - 1928) 

devoted himself mainly to 

folkloristic research and he 

earned a living as a music 

teacher, and conducted 

various amateur choirs 

in Brno. In 1881, Janáček 

founded and was appointed 

director of the organ school, 

and held this post until 1919, 

when the school became the 

Brno Conservatory. He led 

the mainstream of folklorist 

activity in Moravia and 

Silesia, using a repertoire 

of folk songs and dances 

in orchestral and piano 

arrangements. After the 

success of his opera Jenůfa, 

Janáček became one of his 

country’s most important 

composers. 

Modest Mussorgsky 

(1839 - 1881) was the son of 

a Russian large landowning 

family and was trained 

as an army officer, but 

the call of music proved 

stronger. At soirees by 

Alexander Dargomyzhsky, 

he met the composers 

of the ‘Mighty Handful’ 

and was initiated into the 

secrets of composition by 

Mili Balakirev and others. 

Mussorgsky championed 

genuine Russian music 

and often deviated in his 

harmonies and melodies 

from what was common in 

Russia at the time.

Biographies 

Galina Ustvolskaya (1919- 

2006) lived as a hermit 

in St. Petersburg. She 

showed no interest in 

history, politics, or social 

matters. She affiliated with 

the N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov 

Leningrad Conservatory, 

and in 1939 entered Dmitri 

Shostakovich’s composition 

class at the Conservatory 

as the only female student 

in his class. In October 

1947, Ustvolskaya began 

teaching composition at 

the Leningrad Rimsky- 

Korsakov College of Music. 

Ustvolskaya’s music is 

unique, unlike anything else. 

In May 2011, Muziekgebouw 

aan ‘t IJ paid tribute to this 

remarkable composer during 

a three-day festival. 

Sergei Prokofiev (1891 - 

1953) was an early learner 

and composed two operas 

by the age of eleven. He 

made his name as an 

iconoclastic composerpianist, 

achieving notoriety 

with a series of ferociously 

dissonant and virtuosic 

works for his instrument, 

the piano, and made a 

decisive break with his 

orchestral Scythian Suite 

(1915) for orchestra. After 

the Revolution, Prokofiev 

left Russia and resided in 

the United States, then 

Germany, then Paris, making 

his living as a composer, 

pianist and conductor. In 

1936, he finally returned to 

his homeland with his family. 

Altough he was attacked for 

producing ‘anti-democratic 

formalism’, he enjoyed 

personal and artistic support 

from a new generation of 

Russian performers, notably 

Sviatoslav Richter and 

Mstislav Rostropovich. 

Sergei Rachmaninov 

(1873 - 1943) is considered 

the last representative 

of late romantic Russian 

piano writing and the last 

composer to bring the 

romantic Western Russian 

style of composition well into 

the twentieth century. He 

received a gold medal at the 

Moscow Conservatory for 

his opera Aleko. Due to the 

poor reception of his First 

Symphony, Rachmaninov 

fell into a deep depression. 

After the Revolution of 

1917, Rachmaninov left his 

homeland to settle in the 

United States. With his 

primary source of income 

coming from performances 

as a pianist and a conductor, 

Rachmaninov had little time 

to compose. 

Alfred Schnittke (1934 - 

1998) began his musical 

education in Vienna, but 

continued after three 

years at the Moscow 

Conservatory where he 

completed his graduate 

work in composition and 

taught there from 1962 

to 1972. Schnittke’s early 

compositions were strongly 

influenced by post-war 

serialism. Soon he found 

this style unsatisfactory and 

sought his own way through 

music history. His use, 

parodistic or otherwise, of 

various styles and forms led 

to polystilism. He is ammong 

the most performed and 

recorded composers of late 

20th-century classical music. 


(1906 - 1975) became 

internationally known after 

the premiere of his First 

Symphony (1926) and was 

regarded throughout his life 

as a major composer. During 

Stalin’s regime his work was 

censured. Shostakovich was 

openly declared an ‘Enemy 

of the State’ and for nearly 

41

Biographies 

four decades, Shostakovich 

felt like a prisoner in his own 

country. He was a member 

of the Communist Party, was 

awarded the Order of Lenin 

in 1966, and wrote many 

works praising the state and 

its leaders. However, there is 

also music that bravely runs 

against it. 

Richard Strauss (1864 - 

1949) received piano, violin 

and composition lessons from 

outstanding musicians from 

the Munich Court Orchestra 

in which his father played 

horn. A protégé of the famous 

conductor Hans von Bülow, 

he served successively as 

conductor in Meiningen, 

Munich and Weimar and 

became chief conductor 

of the Vienna State Opera 

in 1919. Along with Gustav 

Mahler, he represents the 

late flowering of German 

Romanticism, in which 

pioneering subtleties of 

orchestration are combined 

with an advanced harmonic 

style. His individual, 

lushly Romantic style of 

composition was increasingly 

seen as old-fashioned in a 

post-war musical world that 

had rejected tonality. 

British composer John 

42 

Tavener (1944 - 2013) studied 

piano, organ and choral 

conducting at the Royal 

College of Music where he 

also received composition 

lessons from Lennox Berkeley. 

In 1977, he converted to the 

Russian Orthodox Church 

and liturgical traditions 

became a major influence on 

his work. In 2000 Tavener 

left Orthodox Christianity to 

explore a number of other 

different religious traditions, 

including Hinduism and 

Islam. Tavener’s music 

was influenced by Olivier 

Messiaen and Arvo Pärt 

among onthers. 

Russian composer Pyotr 

Tchaikovsky (1840 - 

1893) studied at the St. 

Petersburg Conservatory. 

Once Tchaikovsky graduated 

he accepted the post of 

Professor of Music Theory. He 

was financially supported by 

the wealthy widow Nadezhda 

von Meck. Tchaikovsky 

traveled extensively and 

was also influenced by much 

Western music in his work. 

He displayed a wide stylistic 

and emotional range, from 

light salon works to grand 

symphonies. Some Russians 

did not feel it was sufficiently 

representative of native 

musical values and expressed 

suspicion that Europeans 

accepted the music for its 

Western elements. 

Performers 

Pavel Kolesnikov was born 

in Siberia and currently lives 

in London. He experienced 

his major breakthrough in 

2012 with his sensational 

win in the prestigious 

Honens International Piano 

Competition. He performs 

regularly with other 

musicians, including pianist 

Samson Tsoy, cellist Narek 

Akhnazarian and the Hermes 

String Quartet. With violinist 

Lawrence Power, he recorded 

all of Johannes Brahms’ violin 

and viola sonatas. In 2019, 

he launched the Ragged 

Music Festival in London 

with Samson Tsoy and also 

received the Critics’ Circle 

Young Talent Award for 

piano the same year, for his 

highly original interpretations 

and artistic vision. 

Pianist Samson Tsoy was 

born in Kazakhstan, and 

moved to London in 2011. He 

is lauded for the originality

Biographies 

and intense drama of his 

interpretations. He is a great 

believer in the importance 

of establishing meaningful 

ways to venture outside the 

familiar and conservative. 

Recent projects attesting 

this include a collaboration 

with the great American 

artist Richard Serra and 

two large scale projects 

at the former car-park at 

South East London with the 

Philharmonia Orchestra. 

Among Tsoy’s mentors are 

Elisabeth Leonskaya and 

Maria João Pires. He is also a 

passionate runner. 

Cellist Mario Brunello won 

in 1986 the Tchaikovsky 

Prize in Moscow, the very 

first Italian to have received 

this recognition. Over the 

years he has worked with 

the greatest conductors 

such as Claudio Abbado, 

Valeri Gergiev, Antonio 

Pappano and Ton Koopman. 

He is also a passionate 

chamber musician. In recent 

years he has promoted the 

rediscovery of the violoncello 

piccolo – an instrument no 

longer in current use, but 

popular among composers of 

the 17th and 18th centuries. 

He recorded 3 CDs with 

masterpieces by Bach, 

originally written for violin. 

Violinist Alina Ibragimova 

has established a reputation 

for versatility performing 

music from baroque to 

new commissions on 

both modern and period 

instruments. This season 

she will play concertos by 

Jörg Widmann, Béla Bartók, 

Sergei Prokofiev and Felix 

Mendelssohn with various 

orchestras conducted by 

Robin Ticciati and will start 

a 2-year Mozart cycle with 

the Kammerorchester Basel 

and Kristian Bezuidenhout. 

This season she continues 

her longstanding partnership 

with pianist Cédric 

Tiberghien with concerts 

across Europe and North 

America. 

Singer Elena Stikhina 

studied at the Moscow 

Conservatory and made her 

Mariinsky Theatre debut 

as Salome at the premiere 

of new production in 2017. 

For this performance, she 

was awarded the Onegin 

Russian opera prize and 

St Petersburg’s most 

prestigious theatre prize the 

Golden Sofit. Immediately 

thereafter she became a 

member of the Mariinsky 

Opera Company. She is in 

demand by opera houses 

in Europe and the U.S. and 

in 2019 made her debut at 

the Salzburg Festival in the 

title role of Cherubini’s opera 

Medea. 

Slagwerk Den Haag is 

fascinated by everything 

concerned with sound, pulse 

and materials that produce 

sound. As performers, they 

play on their traditional 

arsenal of instruments, 

and on porcelain, equine 

jaws, glass or 3D-printed 

instruments. Their projects 

reflect the very latest 

developments and they do 

everything in their power 

to help in the quest for the 

undiscovered. 

Through her distilled and 

often surreal works, Eva 

Vermandel explores how we 

perceive the world, drawing 

attention to the mundane by 

suspending its ‘normality’. 

Her work is in the collections 

of the V&A, London; the 

National Portrait Gallery, 

London; and the National 

Galleries of Scotland, 

Edinburgh. 

43

Verwacht 

Mei 

vr 5 mei / 20.15 uur 

Vrijheid! 

Nederlandse Bachvereniging 

Kronos’ 50 for the 

Future 

Za 6 + zo 7 mei 

Za 6 mei 

14.00 uur / Hele Gebouw 

Kronos’ 50 for the Future: 

Part I 

Animato Kwartet, Attacca 

Quartet, Kronos Quartet, 

Matangi Quartet, Ragazze 

Quartet, Belinfante Quartet 

+ Leerorkestkwartetten 

19.30 uur / Hele Gebouw 


Part II 

ADAM Quartet, Animato 

Kwartet, Attacca Quartet, 

PUBLIQuartet, Ragazze 

Quartet + Signum Quartett 

Zo 7 mei 

10.30 uur / Hele Gebouw 


Part III 

Sweelinck 

Academiekwartetten, 


Kwartet, Ruysdael Kwartet, 

Signum Quartett + 

Belinfante Quartet 



Part IV 

ADAM Quartet, Attacca 

Quartet, Matangi Quartet, 

Kronos Quartet, Ragazze 

Quartet, Ruysdael Kwartet 

+ Belinfante Quartet 



Part V 

Kronos Quartet, Ragazze 

Quartet, Attacca Quartet, 

Ruysdael Kwartet, 

PUBLIQuartet, Matangi 

Quartet, Signum Quartett, 


Kwartet + Belinfante 

Quartet 

Mis geen enkel concert! 

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Voor kinderen (7+) met 

volwassenen. Elke zondag, 

13.00 uur in de Atriumzaal. 

Kaartjes via muziekgebouw.nl/ 

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WannaSwing 

Op de kade voor het 

Muziekgebouw staat de 

interactieve muziekinstallatie 

WannaSwing van theatermaakster 

Caecilia Thunissen 

en scenograaf Jan Boiten. Acht 

schommels sturen composities 

aan van hedendaagse 

componisten als Joey Roukens, 

Mayke Nas en Rob Zuidam. 

Zie voor meer informatie 

muziekgebouw.nl/wannaswing 

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Elke 22e van de maand 

klinkt om 20.00 uur het 

geluidsmonument Huil van 

de Wolff van Martijn Padding 

ter herinnering aan oprichter 

van het Muziekgebouw 

Jan Wolff (1941 - 2012). 

muziekgebouw. nl/ 

huilvandewolff 

Geheimtips 

Bijzondere concerten 

die je niet mag missen. 

muziekgebouw.nl/geheimtips 

44

Foto: Erik van Gurp 

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45


Samson Tsoy 

Mario Brunello 

Alina Ibragimova 

Elena Stikhina 


Eva Vermandel 

muziekgebouw.nl

2023 04 29-30 Ragged Music Festival ENG - Website

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