The “Suite concertante” for violin, piano, and strings by Lera Auerbach was composed in 2001 on the occasion of the 20th jubilee of the Lockenhaus Festival, where the work was premiered by Gidon Kremer, Lera Auerbach, and the Kremerata Baltica. The composer dedicated her work to Gidon Kremer. On 24 October 2017, the Swedish violinist Hugo Ticciati and the French pianist Natacha Kudritskaya will perform the Ukrainian premiere of the “Suite concertante” together with the Kyiv Soloists at the Ukrainian National Philharmonie in Kiev.
Lera Auerbach has written the following about this work:
“The dialogue between a person, whose physical existence is limited, and the boundless energies surrounding him, as well as their coexistence and mutual influence, have always had a background thematic influence on many of my works, including the Suite concertante. Although this Suite was conceived without an extra-musical program, its musical language is nonetheless symbolic and multilayered, allowing for a variety of possible interpretations. The baroque idea of a suite with a connection to dance is also applicable to this work, in a certain way. What is our life, then, but a constantly, eternally changing dance with time? The material to the ‘Suite concertante’ is taken from the three prelude cycles (24 Preludes respectively for piano solo, for violin and piano and for violoncello and piano) which I composed in 1999. These cycles, taken together, result in a triple journey through all the major and minor keys. Bringing together the material of these three cycles to form one single work enabled me to intensify my own experiences with the prelude cycles and to show their internal correlations. At the end of the Suite, all 24 major and minor keys pass by like shadows and lead us back to the beginning of the work, thus arriving full circle. The music in the Suite concertante reflects the fragile and often tragic thinking of our time. The search for sounds out of silence holds the individual movements together like a thread leading out of a labyrinth. Perhaps one can only perceive the steps of time in the silence.”
24 October 2017
Kiev
Ukrainian National Philharmonie, 7:00 PM
Ukrainian Premiere: Lera Auerbach,
“Suite concertante” for violin, piano, and strings
Hugo Ticciati (violin)
Natacha Kudritskaya (piano)
Kyiv Soloists