Mysteries: Beethoven and Ligeti

Music by Beethoven, master of the small and large scale, bookends this programme.

We open with his intimate Cello Sonata No.2, performed by Paul Watkins and Alessio Bax. To close, violinist Alena Baeva joins them for his Triple Concerto for violin, cello, and piano, a work of dynamic interplay composed during one of his great creative outpourings.

At the centre of the programme stands an undefinable work of genius: Ligeti’s Mysteries of the Macabre, a selection of songs drawn from his opera Le Grand Macabre. By turns absurd and sublime, it balances on the very edge of music and performance: the orchestra mimics and mocks the soloist, who is warning – hysterically and incomprehensibly – of a comet heading towards the mythical kingdom of Bruegelland. Sarah Aristidou reprises the solo role fresh from a performance of the complete opera at Wiener Staatsoper.