RESET! — Stefano Bruno, Victor Julien-Laferrière + Het Muziek

A combination of music and play

A perpetual source of inspiration: the combination of music and play. Music as a toy, a secret message, or a mission to reach the next level. In Signs, Games and Messages, György Kurtág hides an entire world of miniatures: musical letters, tributes, and playful technical experiments. In Living Toys, Thomas Adès makes a chamber ensemble come alive like puppets: virtuosic, whimsical, and film-like, with a fantasy jumping back and forth between a children’s playroom and a fever dream – as if someone pressed the ‘reset’ button. Alexandre Kordzaia developed Speedrun: a game read like a score. A real-time ‘play’ consisting not of movements, but of levels performed live by musicians.

The programme ends with a world premiere of Gerald Barry’s ensemble version of his Cello Concerto. Barry is famous for his unexpected twists and turns, as well as an explicit sense of humour. He writes: ‘In the first movement, the cello is a god – going up first and then going down. In the second movement, the cello sometimes is a bee.’ It’s up to the listener to find the answer to this riddle!