12th May 2025 – BRATISLAVA, Small Concert Studio STVR
Impressionistic beginnings of the 20th century, challenging works of the musical avant-garde to contemporary compositions by Slovak and Austrian composers. The Quasars Ensemble, one of the most outstanding Slovak ensembles of contemporary music, in cooperation with foreign guests, has chosen a sophisticated dramaturgy for the concert entitled Carnival of Colours.
For the opening, the performers chose a very appropriate, brilliant example of Maurice Ravel’s impressionistic chamber music. Introduction et allegro with solo harp is a uniquely delicate and evocative piece in which the composer uses the contrasting colours of the instruments to stunning effect. The performance by the Quasars Ensemble was certainly enjoyed by all listeners. The very first notes of the duo of Canadian flutist Audrey Perreault and clarinetist Jozef Eliáš convinced the audience that this was going to be a truly successful interpretation. The interpretation of harpist Tina Žeredin was also worthy of praise, as her solo playing was far from artificial – on the contrary, it was sovereign, confident and natural. The players, completely emotionally in tune with the music, managed to showcase Ravel’s masterful work with colour and texture. There was an unexpected change in the concert programme. Despite the original intention, it was not possible to perform Ivan Buffa’s Organismo. The reason for this was the sudden deterioration in the health of the oboist, whose interpretation plays a key role in the work.
Luciano Berio’s Sequenza IXa brought a change in musical aesthetics. Each of the fourteen Sequenzas is a stand-alone solo piece that requires the performer to go beyond the usual technical possibilities – to go beyond what seems possible at all – in order to create both different and unusual sounds. Individually, the pieces are sequences of compelling and contrasting events, presenting a challenge to both listener and performer. Clarinetist Jozef Eliáš found in Sequenza IXa a kind of melodic surrealism, the essence of lyrical flexibility, often whispering and lamenting at the same time. In an elegant, colourful and sonically captivating interpretation, the listener may even forget that he is listening to a fifteen-minute composition for one instrument.
Daniel Oliver Moser’s Albireo was commissioned for pianists Diana and Ivan Buffa. The title of the composition for two pianos refers to a double star in the constellation of the Swan, as the composers write in the bulletin for the concert. This astronomical phenomenon served the composer as an excellent metaphor for the musical conception of the piece, where the two pianos represent two distinct but harmoniously cooperating entities. The pianists interpreted the contrasts between the two instruments very clearly and comprehensibly. The harmonies representing explosions or stellar eruptions in the echoes ensured the attention and interest of the listeners. Particularly impressive was their pedal work, which at some moments created the impression of an acoustic illusion – the reverberating chords merged into an almost ambient mass, as if illustrating a starry haze.
The Quasars Ensemble rounded off the carnival of colours with Camille Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals. Although this is a work with parodic elements, they do not operate here for their own sake – the piece retains its musical quality even on repeated listening. In the Elephant movement, the audience enjoyed a powerful double bass melody performed by Marián Bujňák. Fossils captivated with the playing of the Hungarian performer Tamás Schlanger on the xylophone, evoking rattling bones. Diana and Ivan Buffa in the Pianists section again rhythmically tuned the pianos more and more wildly, until they found themselves in the coda again. Jozef Eliáš on clarinet gave a beautiful cuckoo call really as if from the bowels of the deep woods. In the performance of all the works, an extremely high level of musicianship was mixed with childlike playfulness.
Hana CHLEBÁKOVÁ
