Kei Solvang & Opus13

In the winter of 1838–39, Chopin travelled south with his lover and his music paper, hoping the Mediterranean climate of Mallorca would improve his health. It did not. The weather was terrible, the doctors incompetent (according to Chopin), and his piano had barely arrived before it was time to leave. Still, he returned with a suitcase full of preludes. Like Bach, Chopin covers all 24 keys in his Preludes, but these miniature gems are children of the Romantic era: elegant and virtuosic fragments, as emotionally rich as they are concise. 

In Jörg Widmann’s absurd Bayerisch-babylonischer Marsch from Zirkustänze, the audience is invited into the circus ring. The march originally appeared in his 2012 opera Babylon. Widmann viewed the biblical city through a postmodern lens and found curious parallels with a modern, multicultural society and its exciting, potent collisions between cultures. 

Dvořák had a fondness for a good cello melody, often lyrical and melancholic, as in the opening of his Piano Quintet no. 2, a highlight of the piano quintet repertoire. At the same time, he knew how to make full use of the ensemble’s distinctive energy. The tension between melody and muscle, colour and power runs through the work. The ‘dumka’ and ‘furiant’ of the inner movements also reveal his Slavic roots. 

‘Collaborating with Opus13 has long been a dream of mine,’ says Kei Solvang, who invited the string quartet to join her for the concluding Dvořák, after taking on Chopin and Widmann herself. Solvang has previously appeared at the Festival, including as a soloist in the 2023 concert Portrait of Anne-Marie Ørbeck with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra at Håkonshallen. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich and has chosen to bring a work by the Munich-born Jörg Widmann from the city where she studies to her home town of Bergen. 

Opus13 also have their own concert in Troldsalen on Saturday 5 June.