ABOUT
Two evenings of Russian poetry.
“This cycle of Jewish songs grew out of my research into Jewish liturgical music. A music with such ancient roots, which has accompanied the Jewish people through centuries of peregrinations. I was interested in melodies from different sources, but what really inspired me was the singing of the cantors, or hazans, and its inner, intimate expressiveness, yet containing such power of expression.
In this music, the popular and the sacred merge. Whether happy or sad, slow or fast, prayer, folk song or dance, it’s always about sharing and intimacy. It felt like I’d known this music all my life, since before I was born, and it was a strange feeling.
After this cycle, I wanted to stay in the intimacy created by the storyteller, and I chose to turn to Spain and South America, with Montsalvatge, Salgan and Piazzolla. In these parts of the world, every important moment in life is an occasion for song and dance, but with a very different relationship to rhythm. Rhythm is always present, whether in a lullaby, a ballad or, of course, a tango.
And finally, Britten’s extraordinary 1961 sonata, which for me resonates in a mysterious way with the rest of the program.
It seems to continue the “conversation” from the beginning of the evening, to be a response to theElegy, and to end with a finale whose rhythmic, ricocheting bow stroke is strangely reminiscent of Salgan’s Tango.”
“This cycle of Jewish songs grew out of my research into Jewish liturgical music. A music with such ancient roots, which has accompanied the Jewish people through centuries of peregrinations.”
PROGRAM
Dmitri Shostakovich, 4 Preludes for Cello and Piano and Sonata Op. 40 for Cello and Piano
FOURTEEN STORIES
I. Kol Nidre
II. Question
III. Psalm
IV. Conversation
V. Nigun
VI. Prayer
VII. Song
VIII. Kaddish
IX. Psalmody
X. Chemah
XI. Uncertainty
XII. Dance
XIII. Hassidic song
XIV. Elegy
Track List
credits & thanks
CONCEPTION & CELLO
Sonia Wieder-Atherton, assisted by Quentin Balpe
PIANO
Bruno Fontaine
ARRANGEMENTS AND COMPOSITION
Sonia Wieder-Atherton and Jean François Zygel
TEXT WRITTEN BY
Sonia Wieder-Atherton
PHOTOS & VIDEO
Excerpt from the film “Chantal Akerman films Sonia Wieder-Atherton”, by Chantal Akerman, DR and Richard Dumas
