ThèmeS & VariationS
Concert-raconté / Concertale
With Alina Ichmouratov, author and actress
From baroque to rock — a fascinating journey across centuries and musical styles, where each work explores in its own way the art of Variation.
What is Concertale?
A concert? — but more than that.
A story? — well… not exactly.
This narrated encounter brings music, words, and movement to life in an intimate, surprising way, with Alina Ichmouratov, a young author and actress of great talent, as a somewhat timeless presence who inhabits the stage from beginning to end of the concert.
A Kaleidoscope
ThèmeS & VariationS unfolds like a kaleidoscope — six contrasting musical worlds linked by the idea of transformation and by the endless possibilities of Variation, each revealing a different facet of this timeless form.
The program opens with Francesco Geminiani, the vibrant Italian Baroque composer, reimagined by Michi Wiancko, an internationally acclaimed American composer.
Her Variations on “La Follia” salute Baroque virtuosity while reimagining it with contemporary flair and energy.
Alfred Schnittke’s Variations offer a serene meditation on memory and transcendence, while Felix Mendelssohn provides luminous contrast — his variations shimmering with clarity, transparency, and emotional fluidity.
Yuliya Zakharava, known for her unconventional voice, unveils an extravagant new work, Variations in Search of a Theme — a whimsical nod to Luigi Pirandello’s Six Characters in Search of an Author, where the very notion of theme becomes fluid and elusive.
Finally, Daniel Schnyder, the celebrated Swiss composer renowned for his genre-defying imagination, propels two rock legends — Jimi Hendrix and The Rolling Stones — into a vivid orchestral realm, by turns driving, playful, and exuberant.
ThèmeS & VariationS – Concertale is both a celebration and an exploration of variation as form, transformation, and creative freedom — where music, imagination, and emotion continually reinvent one another.
Program
Geminiani (M. Wiancko) — Variations on “La Follia”
Schnittke — Variations for String Quartet
Mendelssohn — Tema con Variazioni
Yuliya Zakharava — Variations in Search of a Theme (Creation)
J. Hendrix, arr. D. Schnyder — Purple Haze Variations
Jagger/Richards, arr. D. Schnyder — Variations on “Sympathy for the Devil”
