«Spiegelungen» – Orchesterkonzert

"It may be that not all musicians believe in God. But everyone believes in Bach," said the Argentinian composer Mauricio Kagel, addressing the incomparable influence of the Eisenach composer and organist Johann Sebastian Bach, without whose work the music world would be different today. This is also true of Benjamin Britten, who was significantly influenced by Bach's outstanding counterpoint technique and sacred works. In Britten's Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, for example, there are clear parallels to Bach's Variations and Fugues. At the same time, the work is based on a theme by Britten's long-time teacher Frank Bridge, to whom it is also dedicated.

Arvo Pärt, on the other hand, perhaps the most important composer still alive, has a similar clarity and spirituality in his music as Bach himself. Influenced by this, he created his most important stylistic innovation in the 1970s out of a creative crisis, the tintinnabuli style (lat. bell, bell). Pärt's introverted, transcendent pieces such as Spiegel im Spiegel or Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten achieved great fame. The latter was created in the year after the death of the British musician. Pärt described Britten as one of the few composers he really admired and wanted to meet him personally. Britten's death was a formative event for Pärt, whereupon he immediately began work on a tribute.

Cast:
Sergey Tanin, piano
Philippe Bach, conductor
Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra of the Grisons

Program:
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Concerto in E major for piano and orchestra, BWV 1053 (1738)

Arvo Pärt (*1935)
Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten (1977)
for string orchestra and bell

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Concerto in G minor for piano and orchestra, BWV 1058 (1738)

Benjamin Britten (1913-1976)
Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge (1937)
for string orchestra