Pablo Barragán, valued for his refined sound and charisma on the concert platform, is one of the leading Spanish musicians on the international stage. Together with Dutch violinist Noa Wildschut and German-born pianist Frank Dupree, he forms one of the most original chamber ensembles, whose broad repertoire focuses on the diverse works of the last century.

Béla Bartók has gone down in history as a preeminent Hungarian composer, whose importance puts him on a par with Ferenc Liszt. Importantly, he was also a researcher of folk music and a pioneer of musical ethnography. The turning point in his life came at the beginning of the 20th century, when, as a young man, he heard authentic Hungarian folk music for the first time. He soon began meticulous research focusing on the system of collecting and analysing folk music from all over the world. These interests also translated directly into his original compositional language. The concert will begin with Contrasts – Bartók's work for violin, clarinet and piano, written in 1938 in response to a request from the acclaimed Hungarian violinist József Szigeti and Benny Goodman, a legendary jazz musician also known as the king of swing. It consists of three movements – Verbunkos, Pihenő, Sebes – clearly referring to the artist’s native folk music, which was of no small importance to his work. Bartók weaves Hungarian dance melodies into its material. In accordance with the title, the composer examines the contracts in both the tempos used and the mood of the work. Romanian Folk Dances, which will close the programme, is undoubtedly one of the most important works in Bartók's oeuvre. In it, he used seven melodies from Transylvania, performed in the original on string and woodwind instruments. During the concert, the artists will interpret the work in an arrangement for trio.

Bartók’s compositions will not be the only ones that are clearly guided by the theme of national folklore. Barragán, Wildschut and Dupree will also perform the lyrical miniature Berceuse sfaradite by Paul Ben-Haïm – an Israeli composer, whose legacy echoes Jewish music. One of his most popular works is in fact an arrangement of the Ladino folk song Mama yo no tengo visto, written in 1939. It will precede the second, melismatic movement of his Sonata in G major for solo violin, composed for the famous violin virtuoso Yehudi Menuhin. Paul Schoenfield’s work also clearly reflects the composer’s fondness for this type of music, which stemmed from his desire to explore his own Jewish roots. This is evidenced by the score of the Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano from 1990. Its movements – Freylakh, March, Nigun and Kozatske – directly refer to various elements of Jewish music, including song and dance. The repertoire will be completed by Pièce pour violon et clarinette by Canadian composer Claude Vivier – a work that fits perfectly into his avant-garde language. It is a special example of the Canadian composer’s fascination with sound space and the study of interactions between instruments in dialogue with each other.