FAIRY TALES WITHOUT WORDS

Before fairy tales were written down and printed in books, they were kept alive by telling them orally and listening carefully. Composers did this as well, but of course they used musical means: Robert Schumann for example gave wonderful voices to the instruments in his Märchenerzählungen (“Fairy Tales”) for clarinet, viola, and piano—but which story they’re telling is left to our own imagination. In this concert, we pair Schumann’s Romantic miniatures with Hommage à R. Sch. by the contemporary composer György Kurtág and delve into other short musical “fairy tales” by Beat Furrer, Pierre Boulez, and Igor Stravinsky. Children and adults are invited to go on a fanciful journey with us, both into the past and the future!