An intriguing mix of quirky inventions - with nursery rhymes by Leoš Janáček, the world premiere of the brand new Viola Concerto by Cassandra Miller, and Bartók's The Miraculous Mandarin.

-----

“It was a laugh,” said Leoš Janáček, and with Říkadla he wrote exceptional choral music full of absurd stories (how else would you describe a beetroot going courting or a woman falling into her own soup), quirky discoveries and eccentric ideas. An intriguing mix of folk music and expressionism that will bring a smile to your face.

The brand new viola concerto by Cassandra Miller will remove that smile. Inspired by a Greek traditional elegy, the work is “a slow blending of colours, a vast space of silence in which the audience can reside.” Soloist Lawrence Power has worked with Miller before, and knows her way of converting experiences into music.

“It will be hellish music if I succeed,” Béla Bartók warned his wife when composing the ballet The Miraculous Mandarin. The scandal at the premiere in 1926 proved him right: both the libretto by Menyhért Lengyel (particularly violent and with a gruesome dark-erotic theme) and the music deviated considerably from the prevailing norm. The harmonies, how he plays with rhythm, the fiery orchestration – Bartók was never so experimental as he was in this work.