Komorebi

Komorebi is a Japanese word for the visual interplay of light and shadow when rays of sunlight filter through the leaves of a tree. Music can make similar impressions and emotions audible: It does not depict external reality, but rather what we perceive within it—moods, light, movement. Impressionism, too, embraces this artistic pursuit: not to depict the world as realistically as possible, but to capture its effect on us as human beings. This program therefore centers on impressions—particularly in the context of the questions of how music creates images and how music arises from images.

Maurice Ravel is considered one of the most important representatives of musical Impressionism and opens the program with the dazzling soundscape of his Introduction et Allegro and its sensual expression.

Toru Takemitsu’s music is deeply shaped by experiences of nature. In Toward the Sea, a unique soundscape unfolds, inspired by the compositional language of his teacher Olivier Messiaen and at the same time carried by a poetic mode of expression all its own.

The sisters Lili and Nadia Boulanger also offer new perspectives on the interplay between sound and imagination. In their duets, they set to music texts by their contemporaries Maurice Maeterlinck and Albert Samain, with whom they were friends.

The American composer Bernard Herrmann, known for his film scores for Hitchcock’s films, offers a striking contrast: His music emerges from images, from movement—here, “motion pictures” are brought to life through sound.

The program concludes with Scènes de la forêt by the French composer Mélanie Bonis, who adopted the gender-neutral pseudonym “Mel Bonis” in order to be taken seriously in the male-dominated world of music. She poetically explores the image of the forest and the concept of “Komorebi” through her music.

As is customary in our Kammer_Spiel format, the musicians themselves will host the program and, through personal anecdotes, open up new perspectives on the works.

Steije Maurer, Program Committee