LES SIECLES – LIGETI / POPPE

African polyrhythms and medieval vocal polyphony, Eastern European folk music and the exotic sounds of the ocarina or lotus flute: in his late-period Violin Concerto, György Ligeti succeeded in creating a wonderful synthesis of the old and the new, the familiar and the foreign, which gathers up everything that fascinated and influenced him during his life as a composer. Just the right work, then, to celebrate Ligeti’s 100th birthday, particularly since Isabelle Faust will play the solo part. In the first half of the concert, François- Xavier Roth and his famed ensemble Les Siècles present works by composer-in-residence Enno Poppe. In Öl (“Oil”), Poppe has slowly flowing melodic lines merge languidly into one another. In the vocal cycle Augen (“Eyes”), he colors poems by Else Lasker-Schüler using the favorite instruments of the Second Viennese School: “A rush of celesta, glockenspiel, harp, guitar, mandolin, and English horn,” wrote the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung after the world premiere last year. “A sensual orchestral garden in orientalizing splendor.”