Doris Orsan & Johannes Tonio Kreusch - Libertango (CD)

Release Date: 06/09/23

'Libertango' not only rounds out into a musical masterpiece, it is also an ode to friendship, an advocacy for exchange across all borders.

Together, Doris Orsan and Johannes Tonio Kreusch have been a successful chamber music duo for many years, which not only cultivates the standard repertoire, but also includes many contemporary compositions - often dedicated to them and premiered by them. And so on 'Libertango' the two find their own way between 'tristeza' and 'allegria', between melancholy and foaming joy of life, between the elements of classical tonality and Latin American rhythm and phrasing. What makes new 'unheard' pieces out of classics that are sometimes heard too often, and at the same time makes world premieres sound like 'standards'. And the two would not be the pioneering, forward-looking artists that they are, if they did not finally establish a connection to the very own European tradition on 'Libertango' and direct the view into the future. First with the six short Romanian Folk Dances by Béla Bartók, which build a transcontinental bridge to the art-musical processing of folk music. And finally with a final exclamation mark, again a world premiere of a work written for Kreusch and Orsan by another friend. The Bulgarian guitarist and composer Atanas Ourkouzounov, who lives and teaches in Paris, dedicated to them the two-part 'Rhodope', divided into a song (Molto delicato) and a dance (Allegro ritmico). It is a modern hymn to the mountains of Ourkouzounov's homeland, ingeniously working with the melismas and rhythms of Bulgarian music as well as a modern, but always accessible formal language, which demands everything from the two of them. And so 'Libertango' not only rounds out into a musical masterpiece, it is also an ode to friendship, an advocacy for exchange across all borders, a celebration of serving music together, and a resounding expression of humanity.