Recording the complete piano works of the towering Helmut Lachenmann – what an undertaking! Playing them all in a single concert program? Pianist Jonas Olsson accepts one challenge after the other. This concert traces an oeuvre that stretches over seven decades, mirroring the evolution of our culture from modernity through post-modernity into … whatever we’d like to call our own curious zeitgeist.
His early Schubert variations illustrate Lachenmann’s tendency toward intertextuality, while the classic Guero is a piano piece that is played entirely without pressing any of the keys. The concert comes to a close with Marche fatale, where an 80-year-old Lachenmann explores the banal and ridiculous.
We could easily lose ourselves in fascination with the composer’s unceasing ability to find new ways of producing sound, but Jonas Olsson reminds us that Lachenmann’s music isn’t intended to be about new sounds, but a new way of listening.
A pre-concert talk will be held with Jonas Olsson and Siri Landgren, focusing on Jonas Olsson’s interpretation on Lachenmann’s piano works. Free admission for this talk.
