Power of Genius – Bartók, Ligeti, Ravel

Tuesday 8 March 2025, 7 pm

Marmen Quartet
Johannes Marmen & Laia Valentin Braun, violin
Bryony Gibson-Cornish, viola
Sinéad O'Halloran, cello

The Marmen Quartet has amazed the string quartet audiences across the world with their sensitive and breathtakingly vigorous interpretations. In their House of Nobility debut the enseble performs work by a group of the most significant 20th century voices. Stemming from before, between, and after the two World Wars the works by era-defining composers invite listeners to witness the power of genius in face of worldy impediments.

Béla Bartók’s wide European outlook was distilled into an orignal compositional language, an amalgamation of folk-music influences and a will to hear the world in a novel way. György Ligeti grew into the Hungarian tradition lead by Bartók and eventually carried it through to the next century. Ligeti’s String Quartet No. 1 proclaims a defiant avant-garde attitude. Composed during the period of the Soviet censorship, the work was premiered only when Ligeti had left Hungary for Vienna. Maurice Ravel’s String Quartet is a work from a moment, when the world could already sense his promise to one day be the leading composer of his era. An inimitable French atmosphere defines the piece, which both Ravel’s admireres and critics recognised as a masterwork.

Program:

György Ligeti: String Quartet No. 1
Béla Bartók: String Quartet No. 3
Maurice Ravel: String Quartet

Tickets: €15–35 + booking fee (from €1,50 www.lippu.fi)