About the Concert
"It is dark, strong music, every note is like a word from a gospel." For Patricia Kopatchinskaya, Hartmann's "Concerto funebre" is particularly emotional music. Perfection is not so important, she said, as power and deep feeling. Hartmann was shocked by Hitler's invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1938 and created the Concerto as a very personal reaction to it. Bartók's Second Violin Concerto is also very important to Kopatchinskaja: "My relationship with Bartók is that of a great love. The refinement of the sounds, their images, their fragrance, their flavor give meaning to my life." She dedicates the performance in our concert
to violinist Zoltán Szekély, for whom Bartók wrote the Violin Concerto.