Nik Bärtsch Reflecting Bartók / BARTÓK TAVASZ 2023

Featuring: Petra Várallyay, Eszter Krulik – violin, Andor Jobbágy – viola, Tamás Zétényi – cello, János Palojtay – celesta, Dániel Janca – percussionSwiss pianist and composer Nik Bärtsch is an exceptional figure of modern jazz, and it is often asked to what extent his hypnotic, meditative music can still be considered jazz. On his latest album, Entendre, he combines elements from a wide variety of seemingly disparate musical worlds in a way that is typical of him. “If we accept Bartók’s thesis that there was once a unified musical primordial sea, but that it was divided by the different cultural developments, then we must say that Bärtsch is now working on the reunification,” a reviewer wrote. He looks upon his new pieces not so much as fixed, definitive compositions, but as frameworks, patterns that can be filled in many different ways. They are like essential movements in a martial art that can be adapted to any situation. In his Budapest concert, he will join forces with Hungarian musicians to approach these situations from the direction of Bartók’s music.