Bach Modern

Artist

Jean-Guihen Queyras, violoncello

Program

György Kurtág (1926)

Pilinszky Janos: Gérard de Nerval (Signs, Games and Messages. 1984)

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)

Suite No. 1 in G major, BWV 1007 (1717-1723)

György Kurtág

“Jelek II” Op. 5b – Signs II (Signs, Games and Messages. 1987)

Johann Sebastian Bach

Suite No. 3 in C major, BWV 1009 (1717-1723)

György Kurtág

Árnyak (Shadows) (Signs, Games and Messages. 2000)

Johann Sebastian Bach

Suite No. 5 in C minor, BWV 1011 (1717-1723)

Concert with no interval

Between Bach and the Aphorism

One of the greatest cellists of the present day, the Canadian Jean-Guihen Queyras, opens a cycle that connects the music of Bach with that of the avant-garde, and he does so by alternating odd-numbered suites with three pieces by one of the greatest living composers, the 90-year-old Hungarian maestro György Kurtág. Bach’s Suites were not published during the musician’s lifetime, but they have become the true bible of the cello. Of the three that Queyras will play, the First is the most popular (the most affordable, too) and the Fifth, one of the most demanding, among other things because of the use of the scordatura (unorthodox tuning of the instrument strings). Kurtág’s aphoristic style (the longest of the three concert pieces is less than a minute and a half long) resonates admirably within the Bachian universe.