A party for Bela Bartók in Salzburg – before saying goodbye Martin…
The Salzburg Festival offers first-class interpreters of the music of the Hungarian master.
“Time with Bartók”? One likes to take it when one’s work is presented in such a predictable way, as in the Salzburg Festival series of the same name. Also, because interpreters are always engaged, who could hardly be imagined better for such a homage. For example the violinist Isabelle Faust, the clarinettist Daniel Ottensamer, the pianists András Schiff and Dénes Várjon as well as the percussionists Martin Grubinger and Erwin Falk. In addition to their special solo qualities, they have a common musical language, above all that specific ensemble spirit that is needed to present a work like Bartók’s Sonata for two pianos and percussion appropriately.
Whether in the far-reaching, sonata-like first movement, in the middle section inspired by the spirit of the French nocturne, or in the finale, which ends unexpectedly calmly and almost mystically after a virtuoso stretta: the challenges are enormous. Always & die musicians pull out all the stops of their technical and dynamic possibilities, listen to each other precisely and attentively. Only in this way can the colors and the artfully intricate counterpoint of this unusual quartet come into their own, overwhelming it with its dazzling power.