ANGEL: A Concert in three Acts

A programme of instrumental music, in three acts, exploring major universal themes: war and exile, love and forgiveness, redemption and resurrection. An opera without words. The renowned Lyatoshinsky Trio is travelling from Vienna to The Hague for this concert. Antonii Baryshevskyi will perform works for solo piano.

The Lyatoshinsky Trio opens the programme with the Second Piano Trio by Borys Lyatoshinsky, one of the most iconic Ukrainian composers of the twentieth century. He deserves a far more prominent place in the concert hall. He wrote his piano trio in 1942, whilst evacuated and far from his home city of Kyiv, which, along with the rest of Ukraine, was under attack. The music reflects that turbulent period and is unyieldingly powerful, yet also personal and meditative.

Antonii Baryshevskyi opens the second act with Alban Berg’s Piano Sonata, a declaration of love written by the young composer whilst he was a student deeply in love. Arnold Schönberg’s Verklärte Nacht is based on a poem by Richard Dehmel. In a moonlit forest, a woman confesses that she is expecting a child by another man. The man replies that their love will make the child his own. A masterpiece about forgiveness and redemption, in the version for piano trio.

In the third act, Maxim Shalygin’s Fetus Etudes are performed. The cycle begins contemplatively: An angel seems to be watching silently from a great height. The titles of the last three études are written in capital letters: TO ALL ALIVE, TO ALL IN LOVE and TO ALL RESURRECTED. It is a marvellous experience to hear how Antonii Baryshevskyi builds cathedrals of sound. TO ALL RESURRECTED builds towards an enormous climax over the course of 20 minutes. It is an overwhelming cycle that leaves a deep impression time and time again.