Cello and Violin: Afternoon Backyard Concert

"Folk Music"

Hungarian Folk Melodies - Bela Bartok
Passacaglia - Handel-Halvorsen
Gobi Canticle - Lei Liang

Duo for Violin and Cello, Op. 7 - Zoltan Kodaly

====

Dear Musical Friends!

Today's program squares itself within the idea of "Folk Music", the nature and quality of such music, and how the pieces of this program draws from and evokes those qualities. One such particular quality of folk music I find alluring is the palpable sense of connection to the past; in performance it embodies for a brief space in time, a materialization of cultural history and richness.

Bartok and Kodaly wrote their music seeking to share with the world the melodies and sensibilities they heard from their Hungarian countryside, casting that music into a dazzling frame of inventive, virtuosic display. Lei Liang draws similarly, not from his own heritage, but from the heritage of his Mongolian mentor, evoking Mongolian long-chant, of dance and shaman rituals.

And the Handel-Halvorsen? While not strictly folk music, it follows a similar sort of trajectory and treatment; Romantic era violinist Halvorsen took the famous "Passacaglia" by Handel, a piece from a bygone era, and recast it into the iteration that you will hear today, brimming with indulgences of the hottest new techniques of the time.

What strikes me about this being an outdoor concert is a sense of cylclical return; we often think of folk music as something performed not necessarily in specialized concert halls, but rather in outdoor or intimate spaces. I find it fitting that we get to share such music in a comfortable outdoor space. Please join us in sharing the moment, and listening together!