19:00
The House of the Black Heads
Venue info + map
Tickets 18/12€
Garth Knox (viola)
Ene Nael (harpsichord)
Irina Zahharenkova (piano)
Kirill Ogorodnikov (guitar)
Lauri Jõeleht (guitar)
Anna-Liisa Eller (kannel)
Alonso Mudarra – Fantasia que contrahaze la harpa en la manera de Ludovico (1546)
Lauri Jõeleht – Sonata a la arpa (2017)
Diego Pisador – Pavana muy llana para tañer (1552)
Lauri Jõeleht – Chant (2009)
Alonso Mudarra – Fantasia del IV tono (1546)
Lauri Jõeleht – Chant Polyphonique (2015)
Luys de Narváez – Canción del Emperador (1538)
Lauri Jõeleht – Chant Harmonique (2014)
One of Alonso Mudarra’s masterpieces is Fantasía que contrahaze la harpa en la manera de Ludovico. This work differs from the standard vihuela repertoire, where gradually moving melodies are usually played with several notes on the same string before moving to the next string. In this piece, however, every tone is to be played on a different string. This sounds very interesting on both the vihuela and the guitar, producing a harp-like sound. I used this technique throughout almost the entire sonata, hence the title Sonata à la arpa (2017). The player also has to use partial capos, which can be deployed to quickly change the tuning of the guitar’s different strings while playing, similarly to harp pedals that shorten or lengthen a string.”
Chant (2009), composed for piano, was my first work relating to the Spanish Golden Age composers. The quotation that appears at the end of the piece comes from Diego Pisador’s “Pavana muy llana para tañer”, composed for vihuela. However, compared to the original, the quotation has been modified and richly embellished.
I had been fascinated by the deep sound of the viola for years, and in 2014, I had the opportunity to write a solo viola piece for the extraordinary violist Garth Knox. In that piece I focused on using the natural harmonics of viola. The performer is expected to play melodies composed of natural harmonics using all strings. I used harmonics up to the 10th partial.
The starting point for the harpsichord piece Chant polyphonique (2015) is the opening motif of Alonso Mudarra’s Fantasia del IV tono: a rising hexachord that is developed throughout the work.
Chant harmonique (2014) begins with the same intervals as Luis de Narváez’s Canción del Emperador. The harmony of the work comes from the semitone fluctuation. In addition, small motif quotations are occasionally heard; these are played using artificial harmonics.
The concert will feature works by Lauri Jõeleht which are inspired by the music of Spanish Renaissance composers. Among others, “Chant Harmonique”, dedicated to Garth Knox, requiring a virtuoso violist to play complex melodies on natural harmonics, and a guitar sonata imitating a harp written for Kirill Ogorodnikov, will be performed. Each Jõeleht’s piece is preceded by the Renaissance piece that inspired it. The pieces of Mudarra, Narváez and Pisador, originally written for the vihuela, are superbly performed on the kannel by Anna-Liisa Eller.