VI. MiraTone Fesztivál és Akadémia 2024 | Kontrasztok

The title of the second chamber evening of the MiraTone Festival is highly fitting, as it juxtaposes two chamber works from Béla Bartók's mature creative period with early compositions by Ernő Dohnányi and György Ligeti, written during their student years at the music academy. While the selected works by Dohnányi and Ligeti are creations of composers searching for their own voice—Dohnányi being notably influenced by Brahms and Ligeti by Transylvanian folk music—both Bartók pieces are milestones in his oeuvre. The Third String Quartet is a key work in Bartók's performance technique innovations, and the violin-clarinet-piano trio, Contrasts, belongs with his most renowned compositions such as the Violin Concerto and the Divertimento.

The roster of performers for the second chamber evening is truly international: making her first appearance at the festival is Moldovan violinist Alexandra Tirsu, who, after winning third prize at the prestigious ARD International Music Competition in 2021, has been invited to perform with notable European and Asian orchestras and at prominent concert venues. Joining her is Russian pianist Ilya Kondratiev, laureate of the Liszt Competitions in Budapest and Weimar, appointed professor at the Royal College of Music in London, and a sought-after soloist and chamber musician in the international music scene. The clarinet part in Bartók's Contrasts will be performed by one of the young talents of the Hungarian concert scene, clarinetist Csaba Pálfi. Bartók's and Ligeti's string quartet compositions will be performed by the ensemble-in-residence, the V4 String Quartet.

Béla Bartók: String Quartet No. 3

György Ligeti: Andante & Allegretto

Béla Bartók: Contrasts

Ernő Dohnányi: Piano Quintet in C minor, Op. 1