Having such a versatile artist as Magdalena Kožená as a guest is always a special experience. Following her double recital with Dorothea Röschmann at La Monnaie in 2008, the Czech mezzo-soprano now presents a solo recital in which she combines German and Slav elements into a single whole. The theme of everyday life runs through her programme: in the children’s room (Musorgsky) or in the countryside (Bartók) and also in Shostakovich’s satirical slices of life. The contrast and emotion in these scenes closely reflects Shostakovich’s views: ‘Music is capable of expressing dark drama and pure rapture, suffering and ecstasy, fiery and cold fury, melancholy and wild merriment...’ For his Village Scenes, Bartók used Slovak folk songs as his starting point; Magdalena Kožená will sing this series in Slovak – a return to Bartók’s sources.

PROGRAMME

• Johannes Brahms
  Lieder
• Modest Musorgsky
  Detskaya [The Nursery] (1872)
• Dmitry Shostakovich
  Satirï [Satires] (S. Chorny), ‘Pictures of the Past’, op.109 (1960)
• Béla Bartók
  Falun (Dedinské scény) [Village Scenes], BB87a (1924)