MILOŠ

The composers on this programme were and are, like MILOŠ, globetrotters, always curious to draw inspiration from new cultures to enrich their imaginations. Silvius Leopold Weiss, for example, was a German musician who passed through the courts of Rome, London and Prague, where he developed such a gift for improvisation on the lute that he is said to have equalled the great Johann Sebastian Bach in this field. Around the same time in France, Rameau composed The Arts and Hours, a suite of dances and instrumental movements that evoke different emotions and scenes from daily life, while Scarlatti drew inspiration from his travels at the court of the Princess of Essex in Spain to write these two Sonatas, incorporating elements of Flamenco, but also daring harmonies that maintain tension throughout the score, from dynamic contrasts to contemplative melodies. Another journey, this time through mathematical abstraction, in Les Barricades mystérieuses, where François Couperin uses trompe-l’œil sound effects to conceal a system of interlocking elements evoking fractal figures within the simple verse-chorus form. As well as works by Handel, Bach and Albeniz, MILOŠ makes a foray into the 20th century with a piece by Mangoré, which blends Chopinian lyricism with traditional Paraguayan music, and a transcription of the Beatles’ gem Blackbird. Amor Fati, by Frenchman Mathias Duplessy, is inspired by a concept of Friedrich Nietzsche’s, which invites us to “love life in its entirety, with the good and the bad things, to take life with all our soul under the light or under the storm, to love life as it is…”.