The world premiere of the new piece ‘The Contours of the Lost’ by Alexey Retinsky on the program ‘Exile Gastspiel’ by Camerata Bern with Patricia Kopatchinskaja (leader and violin). This program features the music of composers who had to leave their homeland. Fleeing one’s land and the search for a new home has always been part of our human history and are still, in our time, a bitter reality for entire populations.

Where is home? Where are we born, or where do we die? Is exile pain and isolation or also a source of inspiration? What remains for composers, musicians, and us human beings is the exile into art, into the ineffable of music, which defies any conceptualisation. You will hear sounds in this concert that may know this. Let’s listen to what they tell us.”

Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Thomas Kaufmann

Program:

From Ukrainian-Russian folklore
Kugikly for violin and Ukrainian and Russian panpipes in an arrangement for the CAMERATA BERN
Ivan Wyschnegradsky (1893–1979) String Quartet No. 2 op.18
From Moldovan folklore: Cucuşor cu pană sură
Alfred Schnittke (1934–1998) Sonata for cello and piano No. 1. Version for cello, strings and harpsichord by Martin Merker (2020)
Franz Schubert No. 3 from the 5 minuets and trios for string quartet D 89
Eugène Ysaÿe (1858–1931) Exile! op. 25, poème symphonique for high strings
Andrzey Panufnik (1914–1991) Concerto for violin and strings

Alexey Retinsky (*1986) The Contours of the Lost for string ensemble, harpsichord and voices, commissioned by CAMERATA BERN, premiere