MUSIK IM RÖMERmuseum: Sonja Kowollik: Illuminée
Sonja Kowollik takes us on an illuminated trip through the contradictions and extremes of life, with “illuminée” staging a bath of emotions and “philosophies.” After the feel-good opener by Haydn Hosokawa, the meditative “Verlust.” The piece was created for the “Diabelli Project” by Rudolf Buchbinder for the Beethoven anniversary in 2020. The great pianist contrasts Beethoven's “Diabelli Variations” on a waltz theme by Anton Diabelli (1819) with new variations on this theme that he commissioned from contemporary composers. Beethoven's Opus 111, his last, legendary piano sonata, sets a fundamental dualism of the world, our thinking into music. Following the formally bound Allegro in the somber “fate key” C minor is the redeemed, singing Adagio in radiant C major, which dissolves all boundaries with its variations. “Per aspera ad astra” – through roughness to the stars? Is Beethoven here ascending into transcendence (as in his Diabelli Variations)? And does Messiaen proclaim the supremacy of the spiritual in his “Vingt Regards”? Sonja Kowollik has selected two of Messiaen's meditations on the birth of Jesus: God the Father looks upon his Son with pleasure and tenderness; horrifying is the gaze upon Christ as the Anointed One, ruler and judge of the end times. In a tapestry, Messiaen depicted the exalted Christ in a storm, furiously wielding a sword. In contrast, Debussy's evenings glow softly from the war storm of 1916, as they illuminated the glow of coal, which was hard to come by. And while Debussy hides in his études “rigorous technique under flowers of harmonies,” G. Agosti fascinatingly displays pianistic virtuosity in his arrangement of Stravinsky's ballet “The Firebird.” In the finale, sparks fly – as if three hands were spraying fire.
Program:
Illuminée
Joseph Haydn (1732–1809): Fantasy in C major “Capriccio,” Hob.XVII/4
Toshio Hosokawa (*1955): Loss
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827): Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor, op. 111
Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992): Regard du Père | Regard de l’Onction terrible. From: Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant-Jésus
Claude Debussy (1862–1918): Evenings illuminated by the ardor of coal | Study No. 7: For chromatic steps | Study No. 8: For ornaments
Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) | Guido Agosti: The Firebird
Artist:
Sonja Kowollik (*2001), GWK Prize winner 2021, went through the Youth Academy Münster and studied in Cologne with Claudio Martínez Mehner and Nina Tichman before continuing her master's degree with Eldar Nebolsin at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin.
Location:
LWL-Römermuseum (Exhibition Hall)
Weseler Str. 100, 45721 Haltern am See
The LWL-Römermuseum, a museum and research facility in one, sees itself as a supra-regional Roman museum where the most significant finds from all Roman camps along the Lippe are displayed. It was built on the original site of the Roman camp Aliso, where the legionaries camped 2,000 years ago. Opened in 1993, the central museum for Roman military history in Northwest Germany brings the 28-year history of the Romans in Westphalia to life with reconstructions to try out, films, 3-D and virtual reality animations, audio plays, and models.
The concert series is organized in cooperation with the KulturStiftung Masthoff and the Westfälisches Römermuseum.
Photo: © Anna Tena
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