{"id":4183,"date":"2025-12-15T18:05:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T18:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iscm-slovakia.org\/?p=4183"},"modified":"2025-12-15T18:05:02","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T18:05:02","slug":"dialogue-between-tradition-and-experiment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iscm-slovakia.org\/en\/reviews\/dialogue-between-tradition-and-experiment\/","title":{"rendered":"Dialogue between Tradition and Experiment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

13th December 2025 \u2013 BRATISLAVA, Concert Studio of Slovak Radio Building<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recital programme Dialogue<\/em>, with pianist Ivan \u0160iller as the soloist, set out to connect the old with the new (Schubert with Bart\u00f3k, Bart\u00f3k with Kurt\u00e1g, tradition with experiment) and, in the words of the PR texts, to bring a quiet as well as passionate conversation across the centuries. Such formulations are appealing, but also risky. The word dialogue assumes that both conversing sides truly hear one another, respond to each other, and that a tension arises between them that is not merely the contrast of \u201cold versus new\u201d but also an exchange of meanings. During \u0160iller\u2019s recital it ultimately became clear that, more convincingly than a dialogue of eras<\/strong>, what worked was a dialogue of composers<\/strong>\u2014especially where the dramaturgy was assembled as a chain of short gestures that complemented one another. The audience was prepared for an interpretive walk among icons of twentieth-century Hungarian music (Bart\u00f3k \u2013 Kurt\u00e1g \u2013 E\u00f6tv\u00f6s), with an international extension (Berio) and a domestic entry (J\u00e1no\u0161\u00edk). The counterpole was to be Schubert\u2019s Sonata, as a more traditional conception of sound and aesthetics. Already here I ask: is a counterpole automatically a dialogue? Or merely a sharp cut?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

B\u00e9la Bart\u00f3k\u2019s<\/strong> opening Six Dances in Bulgarian Rhythm<\/em> immediately drew the audience in; after just a few bars it was clear that the evening would rest on rhythm, energy, precise articulation, and dynamic turns. In \u0160iller\u2019s interpretation the dances were lucid, with a clear pulse and distinct small accents, balanced voices, and exact dynamic contrasts. This music is ideal for hearing the piano not only as a singing instrument but also as a rhythmic organism\u2014Bart\u00f3k\u2019s tendency to move from the \u201cbeautiful tone\u201d toward an instrument with percussive potential. Here the pianist did not come across as an interpreter who needed to force the piece into relief; rather, he let it do its work (to lighten, to tune in, to play).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo: Hana Chleb\u00e1kov\u00e1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Then came Schubert\u2014an interpretive peak, yet a dramaturgical question mark. \u0160iller\u2019s performance of Franz Schubert\u2019s<\/strong> Sonata No. 14 in A minor, D 784<\/em>, sounded with tremendous interpretive breadth. The contrasts were convincing and the dynamic arcs logically built. At one moment it truly seemed that the dialogue was taking place within the piece itself, as if Schubert were conducting a conversation with himself in this music\u2014between resignation and defiance, between intimacy and sudden constriction. Yet it was precisely here that the problem of the basic PR frame \u201cold versus new\u201d became apparent. If Schubert was to be a bridge or a counterpole, it needed to be dramaturgically anchored so that listeners could smoothly change their mode of listening. In this programme, however, the Bart\u00f3kian folkloric pulse gave way directly to Schubertian gravity without sufficient bridging. \u0160iller did justify the choice of the work by the Advent season (and thus by the choice of serious, intimate music), but for that very reason the contrast felt not like a dialogue, but like a sudden transfer into another world\u2014after which the mood in the hall, despite the excellent performance, seemed to drop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, a similar \u201cSchubertian exclamation mark\u201d also appears in reflections on \u0160iller\u2019s other programmes: Hudobn\u00fd \u017eivot, in connection with his May recital in the Reduta, also speaks of Schubert as an unconventional, gently surprising element within an otherwise unified dramaturgy. During Saturday\u2019s concert, however, Schubert was not only a surprise but also the most extensive work, which for a moment overloaded the basic line of the Hungarian school and its echoes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo: Hana Chleb\u00e1kov\u00e1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The most convincing part of the evening came when the programme flowed into a chain of short pieces (Martin J\u00e1no\u0161\u00edk \u2013 Gy\u00f6rgy Kurt\u00e1g \u2013 Luciano Berio \u2013 P\u00e9ter E\u00f6tv\u00f6s), performed without longer pauses and without applause between them. Here the point of the whole concert (a true dialogue) was fulfilled: the pieces followed one another as if they were communicating\u2014not declaratively, but sonically. The pianist also contributed by stating, before this section, his intention to \u201clet the listener get lost,\u201d to make the block ordering into a kind of suite in which the authors respond to one another. Martin J\u00e1no\u0161\u00edk\u2019s<\/strong> miniatures (Sostenuto, rubato ma non troppo<\/em>; Orange Rain; For Ivan<\/em>; Happy Birthday, Gy\u00f6rgy Kurt\u00e1g<\/em>) felt like a sensitive opening of space. The slower pieces were precise, almost intimate; the faster ones had spark and brightness. The subsequent tributes by Gy\u00f6rgy Kurt\u00e1g<\/strong> (Hommage \u00e0 Schubert<\/em>, Farkas Ferenc<\/em> and P\u00e9ter E\u00f6tv\u00f6s<\/em>) masterfully combined emotion with the work\u2019s meaning. The composer\u2019s intention\u2014that every note and every pause has its justified significance\u2014was clearly conveyed by the pianist. Into this line entered Luciano Berio<\/strong> with Earthly Piano<\/em>, followed by P\u00e9ter E\u00f6tv\u00f6s with his Earthly Piano \u2013 Heavenly Piano<\/em> (written in memoriam Luciano Berio), a dramaturgically exact gesture in which the dialogue is almost literal. The same title, yet a completely different way of listening: with Berio, the piano seems to remain firmly earthly, anchored in touch and the materiality of sound, while E\u00f6tv\u00f6s adds another dimension to the same idea\u2014more space, more work with resonance. It was precisely here that \u0160iller\u2019s wish for the listener to get lost for a moment could be fulfilled most easily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the sound-suite, B\u00e9la Bart\u00f3k\u2019s<\/strong> Divided Melody<\/em> felt like a pleasant return to the folkloric source\u2014as if the listeners, after experimenting with colour and silence, were materialising on the ground again. After it came Gy\u00f6rgy Kurt\u00e1g\u2019s<\/strong> Double Notes<\/em> as a coda to Bart\u00f3k\u2019s melody, quoting the pianist from the beginning of the concert. The finale belonged to B\u00e9la Bart\u00f3k\u2019s<\/strong> Romanian Dance No. 1<\/em>, which sounded in the hall like an energetic wave. The dance came across with full sound, energy, and certainty; after all the contemplation and the sonic laboratory we can speak of an energetic climax, and the standing ovation felt like a natural closing of an arc that began with dance-like character and ended with it as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hana CHLEB\u00c1KOV\u00c1<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

13th December 2025 \u2013 BRATISLAVA, Concert Studio of Slovak Radio Building The recital programme Dialogue, with pianist Ivan \u0160iller as the soloist, set out to connect the old with the new (Schubert with Bart\u00f3k, Bart\u00f3k with Kurt\u00e1g, tradition with experiment) and, in the words of the PR texts, to bring a quiet as well as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":4179,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[42],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iscm-slovakia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4183"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iscm-slovakia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iscm-slovakia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iscm-slovakia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iscm-slovakia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4183"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/iscm-slovakia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4184,"href":"https:\/\/iscm-slovakia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4183\/revisions\/4184"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iscm-slovakia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iscm-slovakia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iscm-slovakia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iscm-slovakia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}