Barnabás Kelemen, violin & Mihály Berecz, piano

Cankarjev dom Music Barnabás Kelemen, violin & Mihály Berecz, piano

Programme:
Wolfgang A. Mozart, Sonata for Violin and Piano in B-flat Major, KV 454
Maurice Ravel, Violin Sonata No. 2, M 77
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Franz Schubert, Sonatina for Violin and Piano No. 3 in G minor, D 408
Béla Bartók, Sonata for Violin and Piano No. 1

Two superb Hungarian musicians belonging to different generations have in recent years been enchanting music lovers also as an engaging chamber duet. Due to his exceptional sense of style and his comprehensive technical proficiency, Barnabás Kelemen, winner of the 2020 Gramophone Classical and BBC Music Magazine 2020 awards, navigates with confidence through the entire catalogue of music written for the violin. He is also a devoted advocate of contemporary music, with world or Hungarian premieres of works by Kurtág, Ligeti, Schnittke, Gubaidulina, Steve Reich, and Ryan Wigglesworth to his name.
Mihály Berecz, an exceptionally gifted pianist, is firmly on the road to world fame. Winner of the 2017 Debut Berlin International Concerto Competition, his accolades include the prestigious Harriet Cohen Bach Prize at the Royal Academy of Music London (2018). An elegant artist of great stature, Mihály Berecz dazzles the audiences with his refined, yet liberated interpretations.

The musicians’ artistic breadth is reflected in the evening’s stylistically diversified programme culminating revealingly in Bartók – a composer for whom both interpreters feel a great affinity.

Kelemen proved he was not only a master of his instrument but also of the concert stage, with an electrifying performance. … A commanding presence coupled with a display of astonishing technique quickly endeared him to the capacity audience. His tonal palette in the adagio was passionately moving, whilst his cadenza was awash with fiery brilliance.
Stage Whispers

Blessed with a staggering virtuoso technique and a charismatic ability to communicate even the most complex music engagingly, Hungarian violinist, Barnabás Kelemen … dressed in a black frock coat and skinny trousers, like his fellow Hungarian Franz Liszt two centuries previously, oozed star appeal. It was not visuals alone that were striking: what impressed so much from the start was the tonal palette he demonstrated; the difference between the deep, rich voice of the G string sounded like a different instrument to the silken soaring lines he produced on the E string.
Bachtrack

Pianist Mihály Berecz performed Bach’s Goldberg Variations with apparently effortless technical facility and a stylistic, yet engaging interpretation.
BBC Music Magazine