VFCO / KLAUS MÄKELÄ / SERGEI BABAYAN / DANIIL TRIFONOV

One exiled in the United States and marked by the separation from his native country, the other fighting for his country’s independence; Bartók and Sibelius are here the standard-bearers of artists confronted with the violence of their time. Symbolically, Bartók, who used to play two pianos with his wife, composed his Concerto at a time when financial conditions were becoming increasingly difficult, and when his sponsor had removed one of his two pianos from his home. It takes nothing less than the complicity of the inseparable Sergei Babayan and Daniil Trifonov to take on a score that in more ways than one carries the weight of history. 

Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony was also composed at a time when the composer was facing serious financial worries and concerns for his country, which was about to embark on a war of independence. The composer responded to these two concerns with a single answer: ecstasy in the face of the beauty of Finnish nature, an element of inner catharsis as well as a celebration of the country’s heritage. Thus the Finale, evoking the flight of 16 swans on an April day in 1914, is both a liberating impulse for the human soul and for the country in the face of the foreign yoke.