György Ligeti - Violin Concerto - Kopatchinskaja

György Ligeti (1923 – 2006)
Violin Concerto (1989–93)

Ensemble Modern
Péter Eötvös

Patricia Kopatchinskaja, violin

00:00 I. Praeludium: Vivacissimo luminoso
03:55 II. Aria, Hoquetus, Choral: Andante con moto
11:09 III. Intermezzo: Presto fluido
13:34 IV. Passacaglia: Lento intenso
20:39 V. Appassionato: Agitato molto

The five-movement version of Gyorgy Ligeti’s Violin Concerto now considered as definitive – there was an earlier one in three movements – was premiered in Cologne in 1992 under the direction of Peter Eotvos, with Saschko Gawriloff as soloist. It is a characteristic example of Ligeti’s late works. As in the case of Bartok, the experiences of earlier years, when Ligeti broke new ground in compositional technique, are here combined with a perspective on the depths of history and his own biography. Elements of music from the Middle Ages to the Baroque, Bulgarian and Hungarian folksong, polyrhythmic supe-rimpositions as in the piano rolls of Nancarrow and an exorbitantly difficult solo part are forcibly yoked into complex cons-tructs that liberate undreamt-of sonic energies and make listening into an adventure. The traditional five-movement formal scheme fast-slow-fast-slow-fast is constantly brought to the point of explosion. Folksong-like simplicity, a solemn chorale and misterioso atmosphere in the slow movements are destroyed by painful stabbing interventions of the orchestra, and the brief central movement, with its rapt violin solo over the restless subsurface, ends as a frenzied race towards disaster. Ligeti generates an unprecedented wealth of colours and forms with just twenty-three instruments. The orchestral timbre is subs-tantially distorted and often piercingly shrill, a fact already explained by the choice and tuning of the instruments. The eleven strings include a violin and a viola retuned by the use of scordatura; four of the woodwind players double on ocarina, the two horn players also use natural horns with pure harmonics, and the two percussionists also play the lotus flute. The solo violin is closely woven into the orchestral texture, but constantly asserts its dominant role. Its bravura part culminates in an ex-tended closing cadenza. The score prints the version of this by the original interpreter, Gawriloff, but the performer is free to refashion it as he or she wishes.

Painting: Black Square by Kazimir Malevich