Bartók, Byström and Brahms.
A hundred years ago, in an age of world wars and scientific revolutions, of Einstein and Oppenheimer, the brilliant and boisterous Béla Bartók wrote his explosive String Quartet no. 3. The quartet is a concentrated powerhouse. Hungarian folk music simmers below the surface, and new harmonies and playing techniques ring out wonderfully otherworldly, as if from a different planet.
Our own planet has grown smaller in the era of globalisation. In Images from the Floating World from 2019, the Swedish composer Britta Byström found inspiration in the Icelandic Njáls saga and the Japanese art form ukiyo-e. The seemingly disparate sources share the ability to convey fascinating stories in restrained forms and present as ancient, yet timeless and modern.
Brahms stood firmly in the old world, with Bach and Beethoven as models. Nevertheless, he treated his motifs with such invention that the modernist Schoenberg dubbed him 'Brahms the Progressive'. Listen to how Brahms the builder plants a single rising gesture as the melodic and rhythmic cornerstone of his whole tragic and magnificent String Quartet no. 1.
Opus13 also have a concert with Kei Solvang in Troldsalen on Thursday 3 June.
Image: Opus13. Photo: Julia Wesely
Bus to Troldsalen
Reserve a free seat on the bus to Troldsalen when purchasing your concert ticket. The bus departs one hour before the concert starts from the Tourist Information Centre, Strandkaien 3 in Bergen city centre, and returns to the city centre after the concert.
