Only new things in the East

As part of the Eigenzeit Festival 2025.

A musical journey through a melting pot of nations: This diverse concert looks eastward and begins with the premiere of new "Melodies of the Moments" – a collection that Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov, buffeted by the signs of the times, continues to regularly continue. His second work is "The Messenger" from 1996: musically reminiscent of Mozart, it represents a fictitious conversation between different worlds. Dvořák had a special feeling for folklore and customs, as evidenced by the two pieces from 1880: the famous fourth part of his "Gypsy Melodies" revolves around the important transmission of traditional songs – and his only violin sonata tells of his Bohemian homeland in constantly changing episodes. The program concludes with Shostakovich's Piano Quintet, composed in 1940, which finds itself in the tension between late-Romantic nostalgia and speechlessness in the face of war and violence – and is a typical musical creation for the composer, who constantly vacillated between resistance and adaptation, and who once aptly said: "Only those who feel the heartbeat and the spirit of the times can truly express the thoughts of the people."

Alissa Margulis (violin)
Alexey Botvinov (piano)
Marc Coppey (cello)
Students from Folkwang University of the Arts are taking part in the concert

In program Silvestrov, Dvořák, Schostakowitsch