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Verbier Festival: Joshua Bell and Daniel Harding resurrect Thomas de Hartmann's poignant concerto
🇨🇭 Switzerland /Culture & Society

Verbier Festival: Joshua Bell and Daniel Harding resurrect Thomas de Hartmann's poignant concerto

From Le Temps · () French

Translated from French, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

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  • A performance of Thomas de Hartmann's Violin Concerto Op. 66 at the Verbier Festival brought the unjustly forgotten 20th-century work back to prominence.
  • Composed in 1943 during the composer's exile, the piece is a poignant lament with a unique structure, blending Jewish-inspired motifs and popular themes.
  • Violinist Joshua Bell and conductor Daniel Harding led the performance, highlighting the concerto's blend of peaceful melodies, abrupt rhythmic shifts, and painful lyricism.

The Verbier Festival witnessed a moving revival of Thomas de Hartmann's Violin Concerto Op. 66, a work that had been largely overlooked. Performed by violinist Joshua Bell and conducted by Daniel Harding, the concert resurrected the poignant lament composed by the Ukrainian artist in 1943 during his exile in France.

The concerto, structured in four movements, is characterized by its singular composition. Hartmann masterfully orchestrates stark contrasts between the soloist and the orchestra, maintaining a constant sense of instability. This piece, conceived as a "klezmer concerto" to honor war victims, weaves together motifs inspired by Jewish traditions and popular themes, notably quoting Glinka's "Kamarinskaya."

The writing oscillates between serene melodies, sudden, turbulent rhythmic disruptions, and a deeply sorrowful lyricism. The performance by Bell and Harding successfully illuminated these complexities, allowing the audience to appreciate a significant, yet unjustly forgotten, page of 20th-century repertoire.

DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Le Temps in French. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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