VUURRUITER

(c) Hugo Segers

DISTLER - BARTOK - VAN OSTAIJEN

THE PHANTOM FIRE HORSEMAN
makes a link between folk music and classical music. In the real world, these two genres are separate and have their own performers and a distinct audience. But in the minds of composers, the two genres flow into each other - for many composers folk music is an important source of inspiration.

THE PHANTOM FIRE HORSEMAN
aims to make these links audible through an understanding of the deeper connections, not just by using obvious folk elements or a 'variations on' idea. To do this, we have brought together four very different artists from three different countries - two composers (one vocal and one instrumental) and two poets.

Hugo Distler (1908 - 1942) wrote his great Mörike Chorliederbuch for mixed choir, women's choir and men's choir. The romantic poet Eduard Mörike (1804 - 1875) based his work on all kinds of folk poetry - old German legends, stories, and ballads. Hugo Distler composed rhythmic, sober, evocative music that broke with the emotional tradition of late Romantic classical music from which he came.
AQUARIUS sings a broad selection from the Mörike Chorleiderbuch.

Béla Bartòk's story is even more extreme. It was not for nothing that he called himself first and foremost an ethno-musicologist. The collection of folk music from Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria was his life's work. All his compositions are based on folk music, and his is a collection of compositions that belongs to the top five of all twentieth century composers.
Amélie Tambuyser and Hans Van Kerckhoven have chosen nine duets from Bartòk's 44 violin duets inspired by East European folk music.

Does Paul Van Ostaijen (1896 - 1928), the author of Music Hall and Occupied Town belong in this august company? Absolutely, not least because he was the author (in the last period of his life) of many rather childlike verses that are punctuated with motifs from folklore, folk song texts and proverbs. These are poems in which there is no trace of the poet's ego. Van Ostaijen allows a people, a culture and a past to speak. His poetry becomes public property, not like the works of a court poet who writes functional works, but like a sculpture in a public space that endures throughout time and in all weathers.
Tina Kasse B'nicco and Aquarius put a number of these late poems together in a surprising way.

Over all this the threatening and mysterious 'Feuerreiter' - the Phantom Fire Horseman - reigns.

All those who still believe in legends should be our guest.