Andermatt Music: Classical music meets folk music

"All music is folk music. I've never heard a horse sing a song." This saying, which is attributed to the American jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong, but was actually probably coined by his singing and guitar-playing compatriot Bob Shane, is emblematic of the different approach to music that distinguishes the American and German-speaking reception of music: For in this country, people were long concerned with making an accounting distinction between "serious" (art) music and "entertaining" (popular) music, in which evaluations of "high-quality" and "trivial" always more or less implicitly resonated. The fact that this distinction has monetary consequences in addition to its aesthetic condemnation or condemnation is still felt by some musicians today when they are "pigeonholed" to a certain extent by the collecting societies and the remuneration for their art is measured according to different standards.

Just how outdated this division between so-called classical and popular music is today - and basically always has been - can be experienced in the concert "Classical meets folk music" with the Swiss Orchestra: The first work of the evening is by Karl Jenkins, who became famous not least for his pop project "Adiemus". Between 1993 and 1995, he composed a concerto grosso called "Palladio", the first theme of which he originally wrote for a De Beers television advertisement for diamonds. The three-movement work for string orchestra takes the harmonic proportions of Andrea Palladio's Renaissance architecture as its model. Jenkins also makes use of effective drama in the style of the baroque conerto grosso. Antonio Vivaldi was also a master in this field, as can be heard impressively in the "Summer" of the "Four Seasons": full of tension, the sluggish chords at the beginning symbolize the agonizing heat before the power of nature is unleashed in a thunderstorm. The soloists Noldi Alder (hammered dulcimer, violin and vocals), Maria Gehrig (violin) and Dominik Flückiger (Schwyzerörgeli) demonstrate the wonderful way in which Swiss folk music instruments can be combined with the "classical" sounds of a string orchestra. Their original compositions blur the boundaries between "serious" and "entertaining" and make one thing clear: music must be free in order to surprise.

Program:
Karl Jenkins (*1944):
Palladio

Noldi Alder (*1953):
6 pieces for hammered dulcimer, violin and string orchestra

Maria Gehrig (*1988) and Dominik Flückiger (*1996):
3 pieces for violin / Schwyzerörgeli / dulcimer and string orchestra

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741):
The Four Seasons op. 8, No. 2 "The Summer"


Note: This text was translated by machine translation software and not by a human translator. It may contain translation errors.