Palace of mirrors

The violinist Joseph Puglia – together with his regular duo partner Ellen Corver – is coming to the Paleiskerk to bid farewell to his Italian Gagliano violin, on which he plays his last concerts, after many years of having it on loan. He compiled a programme with three retrospective farewell pieces.

In 1916 Debussy composed his Violin Sonata, which would become his swan song. In this masterpiece he pays tribute to the French baroque masters, that he admired so much. Klaas de Vries also looks back in Spiegelpaleis (Palace of Mirrors): to the music of Schubert. He wrote Spiegelpaleis for the same ensemble as Schubert’s Octet, with an extra piano. One of the most striking parts is Terug ... weer beginnen (back … starting all over again) for violin and piano, in which the violinist plays on his empty g-string for minutes on end and the pianist uses alternating chords to have that one note change colours. A fascinating effect.

Joseph Puglia and Ellen Corver play Schubert's overwhelmingly virtuoso Fantasy in C major, in which Schubert has incorporated a wonderful series of variations on his farewell song Sei mir gegrüsst. You who were snatched from me, I greet you is one of the strophes.