Festival and Marathon
From February 6 to 12, the Bartók Festival took place at BOZAR. Three concerts in the Henry Le Bœuf hall and on Sunday, February 8, a continuous Bartók Marathon from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in four other halls at BOZAR. Guest artist was Dutch violinist Simone Lamsma, who performed Bartók's First Rhapsody for violin and orchestra with the NOB on February 6 and Bartók's Second Violin Concerto on February 8.
During the marathon, no fewer than 23 smaller ensembles were programmed across four smaller halls at BOZAR. String quartets, wind ensembles, a piano quintet, duos, and more. All sorts of arrangements for winds—I listened to the Eiffel saxophone quartet and how differently a Bartók string quartet can sound on saxophones. Not only professional musicians participated, but also students from the Brussels conservatory and amateurs like the orchestra from the Bornem academy.
As is well known, Béla Bartók was not only Hungary's greatest twentieth-century composer; he was also fascinated by the folk music of the entire Balkans. As a composer and ethnomusicologist, Bartók sensed how Hungarian folk music and identity were under threat. "In spare and simple folk melodies, you often hear how a musical idea can be expressed perfectly," he knew. He wanted to explore this treasure trove of songs before it was lost. He incorporated Hungarian, Romanian, Transylvanian, and many other songs and dances into his oeuvre, including in large orchestral works. This festival emphasized precisely that. Apart from the Second Violin Concerto, there were no major works from his late period, such as the famous Concerto for Orchestra from 1945.
Bartók and Brussels
Béla Bartók (1881-1945) actually had a special connection to Brussels. In the 1930s, he frequently visited Brussels and met the Antwerp musicologist Denijs Dille there, who would dedicate his entire life to Bartók's legacy and left his vast archive to the Royal Library. The bond with Brussels is embodied in the statue of Bartók in Spanje Square near Central Station, hidden behind the Ibis Hotel. The understated sculpture by Hungarian sculptor Imre Varga was a gift from the city of Budapest in 1995, fifty years after Bartók's death.
It is through folk music that Bartók develops his very own musical language, after influences from the French Impressionists and Richard Strauss. In the Two Images op. 10, which was on the program on February 8, that influence was still clearly audible.
Next came The Miraculous Mandarin on the program. Originally a pantomime, it is Bartók's first major masterwork in which raw, harsh orchestral sounds alternate with intimate, dreamy passages. Intended as ballet music, it is today usually performed as an orchestral suite. In the Henry Le Bœuf hall, the NOB sounds at its best. Conductor Antony Hermus has a somewhat quirky gait, as if he's wandered out of a silent film, but what a grandiose, wondrous sound he draws from this orchestra.
Wolf-Woman
Dutch violinist Simone Lamsma, born in 1985, is not yet among the great stars of the violin world, but she's well on her way. I heard her on Radio Klara during the week leading up to the Bartók Festival. Sometimes you hear just a few notes from a violinist, and then you want to hear them live. At eighteen, she won the Oscar Back violin competition in the Netherlands; since then, she has performed with the world's greatest orchestras. From the very first minutes of Bartók's Second Violin Concerto, it's clear how Lamsma masters Bartók's language. There are even accents—typical accents like those found in spoken Hungarian—that she plays even more distinctly than others.
Her "Aurore" Stradivarius from 1703 rings out like a silver thread above the orchestra
A soloist sometimes reveals themselves through the encore. And in that, Lamsma is generous. Sometimes she performs an entire solo sonata by Ysaïe or Hindemith. After the applause, she returns and gestures that she will play something more. Bartók, what else would you expect. Together with concertmaster Misako Akama, she performs the last of the 44 duos for two violins, a Transylvanian dance, perfectly in keeping with the spirit of this festival. Simone Lamsma is a brilliant violinist with a great future ahead of her. Remember the name. But make no mistake—Lamsma plays like a wolf.
