Hanna Shybayeva speelt Rzewski

Pianist Hanna Shybayeva was born in a country that has been called many names over the years: Soviet Socialist Republic of Beylorussia-Russia, Republic of Belarus and today we know it as Belarus. A country ruled by a president known as 'Europe's last dictator'. For years, political opponents or people who read independent media and 'banned' books were eliminated. Disappearances, murders and imprisonment of opposition leaders are still common today. Despite the fact that protests have been going on for years, the international media only picked it up in the summer of 2020. Thousands of people took to the streets to demand fair elections. The demonstrators faced violence and abuse, and many of them have been imprisoned without due process.

Hanna Shybayeva speelt Rzewski

Dates

Sat 26 Oct20:15 - 22:15

Location

De Waalse Kerk

Walenpleintje 159

1012 JZ Amsterdam

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Contact

0206232074

info@dewaalsekerk.nl

Get tickets from €12.50

Hanna Shybayeva

Shybayeva is committed to her country by organizing benefit concerts and informative meetings, but communicates best with the world through her great passion: music. The choice to play Frederic Rzewski's cycle was quickly made. Both the technical and emotional richness of this piece give Shybayeva the opportunity to express all her feelings about the events in her country. Music has always had an important symbolic function during Belarusian demonstrations. Shybayeva therefore integrates some of the songs that were used en masse during the protests into the free cadenza at the end of the piece.

Despite the complexity of the piece, its deep emotional layers and sudden musical upheavals reflect human nature. Rzewski can be understood by everyone and speaks directly to the heart.

About F. Rzewski

Frederic Anthony Rzewski (1938-2021) was an American composer, music educator and pianist. He wrote his momun, an hour long, in just two months, using a theme with 36 variations. The composer offers soloist and listener variations in almost every musical genre, from serialism to blues, from classical to minimal music. The main theme comes from the Chilean composer Sergio Ortega and is one of the many songs created during the Unidad Popular coalition in Chile between 1969 and 1973, just before the fall of Salvador Allende's cabinet. Rzewski wrote this work as a tribute to the struggle of the Chilean people against the newly imposed repressive regime of Augusto Pinochet.

Program

F. Rzewski : People United Will Never Be Defeated! (1975)

"Blown away. Speechless. Deeply moved [...] when the theme returned to its original form after an hour of intense musical fireworks, there were also tears. After the concert we almost forgot to applaud. We looked at each other and fell silent. What can you say after a performance like that? So, we stammered something like 'unbelievable', with our faces contorted with emotion."

- Job van Schaik, culture editor at Dagblad van het Noorden about Shybayeva's performance of Rzewski