ECHO Rising Stars Festival / Horváth / Here Comes the Cimbalom - NOSPR

A curious instrument, and a beguiling one. Its strings, struck by small mallets, set the others humming in sympathy, so that each melody comes wrapped in a shimmer of resonance unlike anything else. Although familiar in Poland, it is in the Hungarian culture that the cimbalom occupies a particularly privileged place. No wonder, then, that a young Hungarian virtuoso of this instrument, although starting with Bach and presenting the instrument’s capabilities in a series of other compositions, should put at the centre of his recital the music of his countryman, a genius whose hundredth birthday was marked this February.

György Kurtág’s oeuvre includes, among other things, miniature works of breathtaking beauty. He composed many such pieces, collected in the ten-volume cycle Játékok (Games). These miniatures were often dedicated to friends and acquaintances; among them we shall hear A Sprig of Heather, written for Witold Lutosławski. It is as if a moment of wonder at a handful of sounds were suspended in time. A musical haiku.

Adam Suprynowicz 

Concert duration: approximately 80 minutes