sun 5 june 2016 • BACH AND OTHER SMALL CREATURES
Petri Kumela (FIN) • guitar
Genre: classical • Estimated duration 1h 40 mins with interval • Unnumbered seats
Petri Kumela, one of Finland’s most versatile and sought-after classical guitarists, is equally at home with period instruments as is working with contemporary composers. He is also one of the Finnish guitarists best known on the international scene, with a reputation for originality and versatility, whether he is giving a recital in Calcutta, a school concert in Japan, or motorising guitars in Mexico.
The concert program includes music by J. S. Bach and Small creatures, that the artist describes the following way:
"About five years back I woke up to the fact that in the traditional solo guitar repertoire there are a lot of miniature pieces depicting different small animals and birds (hummingbird, butterfly, bee, etc.). As a large part of my work involves working together with composers, I got the idea to ask them for new ones. The only rules were: 1) The piece has to be short; 2) The creature cannot be bigger than a cat.
The project took off immediately and at the moment there are more than 20 new small pieces in the collection, from a hedgehog to a herring and from a mantis to mongooses. And more keep coming all the time. It is a mix of an unashamedly wide range of styles, from modernism to latin rhythms. Funny, serious, virtuosic, anarchic, meditative, surprising - each piece in its own way tells a story or characterizes some aspect of the creature.
A simple idea slowly turned into a fantastical carnival of small creatures, literally my pet project!"
info
• Petri Kumela also gives master classes during the festival. Listeners are welcome for free of charge.
• Kumela performs on Monday June 6th with Zero Friction VIP.
