Nicolas Dupont, young, beautiful and one with his violin
Alba Mayorga Rodrigo, young, beautiful and one with her clarinet.
Add to that pair the promising pianist Marco Mantovani - what's in a name? - , former student of Aleksandar Madzar, and you have Trio Kaliko.
They closed the 2025 year of the Middagconcerten with a captivating programme under the heading 'Contrasts'. And contrasts there were! It ranged from the France of Poulenc, Debussy and Ravel to the Hungary of Bartok. This is from a sharply flavoured 'L'Invitation au château' by Poulenc to a typical Bartok composition, which gave its title 'Contrasts' to the programme. In between, Debussy's First Rhapsody offered Alba Mayorga Rodrigo the opportunity to prove herself a worthy clarinetist with the Koninklijke Muziekkapel van De Gidsen. Written for a clarinet competition at the Paris Conservatoire, the piece sets high demands, which Alba met with playful ease. She combined the whimsical and playful with the lyrical and poetic. She held melodic lines nicely long with a calm certainty.
From clarinet and piano to violin and piano for Ravel's 'Sonate Posthume', which was only published 38 years after his death. Unmistakable Ravel language, served by a mutually felt expression. The highlights were nonetheless the alpha and omega of the concert. There is no greater contrast imaginable than that between the Poulenc at the beginning and the Bartok at the end. Poulenc, himself a living contrast between, as he himself claimed, "half monk, half rogue, with a heart that prays in church and dances in the cabaret", confronted listeners in the 'L'Invitation au Château' with the contrast between bourgeois society and reality. This with a dose of subtle criticism and social satire. More than a Suite, it is a potpourri of dances and interpretation and tempo instructions, which captivates from the first note to the last. Nice waltzes, a sultry tango, a devilish tarantella, a coquettish gavotte, a rousing polka, even a wedding march pass in review. It was the ideal work to inspire the large audience and hopefully the ideal 'starter' for a whole class of young schoolchildren from Anderlecht.
The closing piece of the concert did require somewhat more concentration. Bartok's virtuosic 'Contrasts' is inspired by popular music from Eastern Europe, but Bartok remains Bartok nonetheless. You are either for it or against it. His music is not particularly accessible. All hands on deck, then: an extra clarinet, a 'trompette marine' and, especially, the enthusiastic approach of the Trio. The premiere of the work in 1940 was in the hands of Bartok at the piano, clarinettist Benny Goodman and violinist Joseph Szigeti. Whether he shredded his bow, history does not say. Nicolas Dupont did though... with a smile.
Nice to know
"The name KALIKO refers to the calico cat: an animal with a multicoloured coat, in which different shades (white, red, black) exist side by side and together form one whole. Just as Trio Kaliko brings together the sound worlds of clarinet, violin and piano: three distinctive voices each with their own character and sounds, which complement each other and together form one colourful, lively and harmonious whole." Quoting Nicolas Dupont.