CANTILÈNE
This compilation is a fairly typical reflexion on the Programming of the SPANNUNGEN FESTIVAL. Most of the programme pieces are suggested by the
musicians themselves, as they just wanted to play those pieces simply with their colleagues in a way of try and presenting unknown music of high calibre which is not played in the usual concert Programmes.
The Booklet contains special notes to every pieces taken from the Spannungen Festival 2017.
Born in the German town of Düren in 1970, Lars Vogt has established himself as one of the leading pianists
of his generation. By winning Second Prize at Leeds International Piano Competition in 1990 he launched
a remarkable career that has led him to concertize in all the major classical music venues worldwide. Vogt
not only performs as solo pianist and as a chamber musician, but also increasingly as a conductor. He
took up the post of Music Director of Royal Nothern Sinfonia in Newcastle (England).
Highlights of Lars Vogt's 2015/2016 season include concerts with the LSO, CBSO, Schottish Chamber and
Hallé, with the Bavarian Radio SO, Orchestre de Paris etc. In the US he played with Baltimore Symphony
and St. Louis Symphony and toured extensively with the Tetzlaff siblings as well as in Japan.
With his passion for chamber music, Lars Vogt has become the professional partner and friend of many
first-rate musicians in the classical music field. As the founder and artistic director of SPANNUNGEN
Chamber Music Festival he has fulfilled a long-held dream. In 2007 he received the Annual German Music
Critics Circle Award for the collected live recordings of Heimbach performances from 1999 to 2006.
As an EMI recording artist, Lars Vogt made fifteen discs for the label, including collaborations with the
Berliner Philharmoniker under Claudio Abbado and with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
under Simon Rattle. Recent releases on other labels include Mozart piano concertos with Frankfurt RSO
(Paavo Järvi), a solo CD with works by Liszt and Schumann, and two duo CDs and a successsful trio
CD. Especially his recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations received rave reviews.
Lars Vogt is the founder of “Rhapsody In School”, an acclaimed educational initiative with important
reper-cussions in Germany and abroad. The project presented its featured artists as “Rhapsody In
Concert” for the first time at the Konzerthaus in Berlin in 2012. That same year, Lars Vogt was appointed
Professor of Piano at the Hannover Conservatory of Music.
Lars died September 5th 2022
George Gershwin was an American composer, who is mostly known due to his combinations of classical and popular music genres.
George Gershwin grew up in a poor neighbourhood in New York. His parents were Russian immigrants who had trouble making ends meet. They did, however, decide to purchase an old piano so Ira Gershwin could study to become a musician. Yet, it turned out not Ira, but his younger brother George showed remarkable talent. Ira applied himself to writing song lyrics and together the Gershwin brothers became absolute greats in the world of 20th century musicals. Nowadays, George's compositions are still relevant, as is evidenced by the many performances of his Rhapsody in Blue from 1924. But the best example is the ageless Summtertime, which has been covered a countless number of times by a countless number of artists.
Due to his early orchestral works based on folk music (Symphonic Variations for Orchestra). Witold Lutoslawski is claled the Polish Bartók from time to time. However, perhaps ironically it was in his Musique Funèbre À La Mémoire Béla Bartók (1958) that he truly broke new ground. A radio broadcast of John Cage's Concerto for Piano made a large impression on him. Inspired by him, he decided to give more freedom to the performers in some parts of his compositions. With that, Lutoslawski was settled among the Polish avant-garde in a blow, along with Penderecki and Panufnik. Some large-scale caleidoscopic compositions such as his Second Symphony and his Livre Pour Orchestre made use of a hallucinating richness of sound. In the same time, Lutoslawski composed major vocal cycles, akin to Ravel's and Debussy's music. He continued to refer to the French music tradition by composing in a free, refined style such as in his Paroles Tisées (1965), Les Espaces Du Sommeil (1975) and the charming cycle Chantefleurs Et Chantefables (1990).