The Sound and the Fury

Lachenmann, Christou and Saint-Saëns take music taken to the limit in the final concert of the Collective Actions series.

Programme

Helmut Lachenmann (b. 1935)
Marche fatale, 2006–2009

Jani Christou (1926–1970)
Anaparastasis III: The Pianist, 1968

Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst (1812–1865)
The Last Rose of Summer, 1864

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921)
The Carnival of the Animals, 1886

On the final evening of the Collective Actions series at GES-2 House of Culture, theatricality disrupts the familiar concert setting, subverting expectations and upsetting the customary relationship between stage and auditorium. 

Performed by

Fyodor Lednev conductor

Daniil Kogan violin 

Boulez Ensemble

Yaroslav Timofeev concert host

Photo: Anya Todich

The explorations of the Greek composer and philosopher Jani Christou, a student of Ludwig Wittgenstein and one of the central figures of the twentieth-century avant-garde, evoke the ritualistic past of art: the tense, mystery-laden energy and globalism of his music spring from the Dionysian roots of ancient tragedy. In the late 1960s, Christou created a series of works under the heading Anaparastasis (“representations”, “re-enactments”), in which sound and gesture merge into one. The final part of the cycle, Anaparastasis III: The Pianist, has gone down in history as perhaps the most radical example of the convergence of new music with the tradition of actionism. It can also be seen as an uncompromising embodiment of the rebellious ideals of 1968.

The Carnival of the Animals, [BH1] composed in a few days in February 1886 by Camille Saint-Saëns, is a brilliant satire on the past and present of French music. The heroes of this "zoological fantasy"—a genre invented by composer himself to define his score—include Jean-Philippe Rameau, Hector Berlioz, Jacques Offenbach and Saint-Saëns himself, alongside an assortment of turtles, donkeys, and fossils. The entire pantheon of French musical art is reflected in the distorting mirror of this tour de force for piano and small ensemble .

Marche fatale, composed in 2006–2009 by the classic of contemporary music, Helmut Lachenmann, is a skilful play with musical clichés and truisms. The German composer, whose ninetieth birthday year was celebrated worldwide in 2025–2026, brings us a heady mix of grotesque, stylised kitsch with elements of farce and puppet theatre—a far cry from the extreme sonic worlds, uncompromising towards both listeners and performers, which are Lachenmann’s usual hallmark. However, by tripping up audience expectations, the composer indulges his favourite theme in a new light—he overcomes the inertia of perception and breaks down cultural stereotypes, including stereotypes that have solidified around his own work.

These varied compositions from Christou, Saint-Saëns, and Lachenmann are framed by romantic one-man theatre in The Last Rose of Summer (1864), a cycle of variations for solo violin by the Austrian composer Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst. The virtuosity of the piece makes extreme demands on the performer, transforming the concert stage into a circus ring.

Fyodor Lednev (b. 1971, Minsk) is a conductor. He graduated from the Saint Petersburg Conservatory specialising in choral conducting (1995) and operatic and symphonic conducting (1998). Since 1995, he has taught at the Saint Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov Music College. He has appeared as guest conductor with leading Russian orchestras, including the Svetlanov State Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra, the Russian National Youth Symphony Orchestra, the musicAeterna Choir and Orchestra, and others. In 2024 he won the prize for Best Conducting Work at the Golden Mask theatre awards in Moscow.

Daniil Kogan (b. 1993, Moscow) is a violinist. He studied with Maya Glezarova at the Moscow Conservatory, continuing his studies at the Maastricht Conservatory with Boris Belkin and with Eduard Wulfson in Geneva. He was a prize winner at the Long-Thibaud- Crespin International Piano and Violin Competition (Paris, 2018), the Viktor Tretyakov International Violin Competition (Krasnoyarsk), and the Seventeenth International Tchaikovsky Competition (Moscow, 2023). Since 2019, he has been the artistic director of Pritiazheniye (“Attraction”) Creative Association. Daniil Kogan teaches at the Moscow Conservatory.

Yaroslav Timofeev (b. 1988, Novgorod) is a musicologist, lecturer, and regular host of concerts at GES-2 House of Culture. He is a graduate of the Moscow Conservatory, chief editor of Musikalnaya Akademia magazine, and has worked since 2010 at the Moscow Philharmonic Society (Russia’s largest concert organisation) where he leads a number of projects: Mum, I’m Crazy about Music (since the 2017/2018 season), The Language of Music (co‑author and presenter since 2018/2019), Thing-in-Itself (author and presenter since 2021/2022), and All Stravinsky (author and presenter since 2022/2023). He has performed since 2017 as pianist with the Russian indie group, OQJAV.