The Grand Evening Concert Part 2 – „On Folk Music“ – Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály
Date
Hour
Location
Costs
About folk music, Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály
Keyboard
Steffen Schleiermacher
VIOLIN
Andreas Seidel
Clarinet
Matthias Kreher
Soprano
Julia Sophie Wagner
Béla Bartók (1881-1945) – Romanian Folk Dances (1915), for violin and piano (arranged by István Szekely)
Béla Bartók – Three Folk Songs from Csík County (1907) for Piano
Béla Bartók/Zoltán Kodály (1882-1967) – Hungarian Folk Songs (Selection) for Soprano and Piano
Béla Bartók – Roumanian Christmas Songs Series 1 for Piano
Zoltán Kodály – Nine Piano Pieces (Selection) (1905-1909)
Béla Bartók – Five Songs Op. 15 (1916), for Soprano and Piano
Béla Bartók – Contrasts (1938), for Clarinet, Violin, Piano
The second grand evening concert focuses on folk music as an artistic source. Works by Béla Bartók and Zoltán Kodály demonstrate how music of great rhythmic power, sonic refinement, and emotional depth arises from traditional melodies, dances, and songs. With Steffen Schleiermacher, Andreas Seidel, Matthias Kreher and Julia Sophie Wagner The audience encounters a high-calibre ensemble that brings this cosmos to life in a variety of arrangements – from intimate folk songs to Bartók's brilliant chamber music work. Contrasts. Thus, the evening promises an impressive exploration of Hungarian musical tradition, encompassing collection, memory, and modern expressiveness.
Steffen Schleiermacher is one of the formative personalities of Leipzig's music scene and has been internationally active for decades as a pianist, composer, and conductor. He studied piano and composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig, continued his training later in Cologne, and has directed the concert series since 1988 New music at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig. In 1989, he also founded the Ensemble Avantgarde and has made a particular contribution to 20th and 21st-century music through numerous concerts and recordings. At the evening concert of the Merseburg Organ Days, he can be experienced as an interpreter who is as insightful as he is expressive, unlocking the sound worlds of Bartók and Kodály with great precision and artistic intensity.
Andreas Seidel is one of the most relevant violinists in Leipzig's musical life. He studied violin and chamber music at the Hochschule für Musik Leipzig under Prof. Gerhard Bosse, was concertmaster of the Gewandhaus Orchestra, and was for many years the first violinist of the Leipzig String Quartet, with whom he received numerous awards. Since 2009, he has been deputy 1st concertmaster of the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, artistic director of the Gewandhaus Octet, and also works as a teacher at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Leipzig. In the evening concert, Andreas Seidel can be experienced as a chamber musician who is both experienced and finely nuanced, bringing Bartók's sound language to life with precision, intensity, and great stylistic openness. His close artistic connection to Steffen Schleiermacher also dates back to their joint founding of the Ensemble Avantgarde in 1989.
Matthias Kreher has been the solo E-flat clarinetist in the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig since 1986. He studied from 1981 to 1986 at the Leipzig University of Music under Rudolf Bartl and Wolfgang Mäder and was engaged by the orchestra immediately after completing his studies. He is also a founding member of the Ensemble Avantgarde Leipzig, a member of the Leipzig Wind Quintet, and has been teaching at the Leipzig University of Music and Theatre since 1997.
Julia Sophie Wagner is a versatile soprano who is at home in both the concert and opera spheres. She studied in Weimar, Montreal, and Leipzig and has made a name for herself, particularly with a wide-ranging repertoire spanning Baroque, Lied, and music of the 20th and 21st centuries. On the opera stage, her recent roles include Pamina in Mozart's The Magic Flute to be experienced at Oper Leipzig; at the same time, she is regarded as a distinguished interpreter of Johann Sebastian Bach's vocal music. At the Merseburg Organ Days, she is an expressive singer who imbues the songs of Bartók and Kodály with tonal finesse, textual proximity, and great interpretative power.
