Opening concert Musica sacra Maastricht

Even as a child, Iván Fischer wondered about the fact that in Jewish families the oppressive memory of the Holocaust was able to coexist with a lasting adoration of the German high culture. Using texts of Rainer Maria Rilke, Avrom Sutzkever, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe as well as Yiddish folksongs, Fischer joins the diverging forces in Eine Deutsch-Jiddische Kantate “Die Stimmen der Geister”, thus finding his solution for this paradox: the strongly contrasting opposition of the musical styles results in a new harmony.

Guillaume Connesson composed his monologue for soprano, clarinet, cello and piano based on the adaptation of Seneca’s Medea by the Walloon writer Jean Vauthier. How gruesome was Medea’s revenge when Jason left her? From an interpersonal point of view, retaliation remains an extremely delicate item. It takes a demanding process of understanding and recognition for perpetrator and victim to reconcile.