ECHO Rising Stars Festival / Fritz / Stevanovich / Classics, Here and Now - NOSPR

The first of Schumann’s Five Pieces in Folk Style is entitled Vanitas vanitatum, which inevitably brings to mind the biblical Book of Ecclesiastes and its celebrated phrase, ‘Vanity of vanities, all is vanity’. Yet the reference is not straightforward, since its probable intermediary was Goethe’s poem of the same title. What renders the piece even more intriguing is Schumann’s instruction to perform it Mit Humor – with humour.

It is in this fascinating middle ground that the entire intricate programme is kept, with Arvo Pärt’s apparent outward calm simmering with heat underneath, with Peter Eötvös’s Two Poems unfolding as a dialogue with the beyond, with Jennifer Walshe’s searing irony, and Johann Sebastian Bach cello dances. The concert is crowned with the shimmering post-minimalist works by Mikołaj Majkusiak and by the evening’s soloist, the accordion virtuoso Goran Stevanovich. The latter’s beloved instrument and Valerie Fritz’s cello will together form a thrillingly unconventional duet.

Adam Suprynowicz

Concert duration: approximately 70 minutes