David Dalle
Thursday December 19th, 2019 with David Dalle
From Darkness to Light: Annual winter solstice show with Patricia Kopatchinskaja's "Time & Eternity"

Every year close to the winter solstice we join a human heritage dating back millennia in the northern hemisphere, confronting the longest night with joyful, festive noise. Of course, we must hear the darkness first, and this year, I chose a new recording from violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja. This is not the first time I have used one of her recordings for the darkness, she seems drawn to this side of music. For her new recording, made with Camerata Bern, she chose a fascinating selection of unusual works drawn from varied sources, Jewish, German, Polish, Swiss, and Bach. The program seems to be in two parts, the first, music inspired by the holiest Jewish day Yom Kippur with a cantor intoning the Kol Nidre and John Zorn's piece of the same name, followed by the searing violin concerto by German composer Karl Amadeus Hartmann from 1939, his personal cry of despair and outrage at Nazi terror. The second part is Passion music, but we will be hearing the first part today. Kopatchinskaja writes: "This music is made out of the blood and tears of tortured souls: a strangled scream, voices muttering amid a terrifying silence, the sounds of war in an improvised cadenza...It is about us, our past and future" Sombre stuff indeed! But do not worry, music of explosive and exuberant joy will come!