Paths to Illumination
“Silence is a flower, it opens up, dilates, extends its texture, can grow, mutate, return on its steps… Silence is the creation of space… Silence demands the nature of night, even in full day, it demands shadows. But in all my wanderings I never forgot the light.” — Etel Adnan
Pianist Robert Fleitz presents a concert of solo piano music that explores the textures of mortality, memory, guilt, and rebirth.
Curated especially for Diagonale’s intimate space and historic piano, the program features works of both virtuosity and restraint, from composers who are deeply interested in music’s spiritual potential. At the center of the concert is Valentin Silvestrov’s spacious, shadowy masterwork “Piano Sonata No. 2”. Balancing it are two works heard for the first time in Latvia, by Krists Auznieks and Žibuokle Martinaityte, that together offer a possible path towards illumination. Finally, the concert is surrounded by the known master JS Bach, and Ethiopian nun Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, for two perspectives on the piano’s eternal beauty.
Like the changing seasons, this musical sequence invites us to gradually light our guiding candles and turn outwards through contemplation into rebirth.
Through “mesmerizing” and “commanding” performances (The New York Times), pianist and composer Robert Fleitz curates artistic experiences that surprise as often as dazzle. He made his “auspicious debut” (New York Concert Review) in Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall in October 2021. Known as an “innovative musical thinker” with a reputation for dynamic performances of both canonic and new repertoire, he has made appearances in 25 US states and 17 countries worldwide, including the Kyoto Music Festival; BAM’s Next Wave Festival; the Metropolitan Museum of Art; the Latvian National Library; the Irish National Concert Hall; Copenhagen's Koncertkirken; the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts; the Chelsea Music Festival; Le Poisson Rouge; the Aspen Art Museum; and a small cardboard house in a Lower East Side art gallery, among many others.
Biļetes: 7 eur pre-sale, 10 euros at the entrance. LIMITED AMOUNT available!
