First live concert after the second lockdown

On May 6, 2021, when concerts for a live audience were still impossible or a very rare thing, I had the pleasure to perform a short concert in the series INSPIRATIONS, atelier concerts in Dornach (Switzerland), curated by one of my colleagues, violinist and artist Matthias Klenota.

The concert took place in the hallway of a 19th century house, the audience (max. 10 people) sitting around in armchairs and on the stairs. Our “stage” was the end of this hallway, where there was just enough space for Vera Schnider with her baroque harp and Matthias and I with five violins in total, in different scordaturas. The concert was a remembrance of Heinrich Biber’s date of death (3 May 1704), and since Biber is known as the king of scordatura on the violin this was a central element in our performance.

The concert started with a composition by Matthias Klenota for two violins, both with four d-strings, the most extreme scordatura I ever played in, with a remarkable effect.
It was followed by an anonymous duo for two violins, a suite in four movements from 1630 (Balletti a due violini scordati) in the scordatura: a-e’-a’-d’’.
Vera Schnider then performed Froberber’s Lamentation for Ferdinand IV in c major, after which I performed and improvisation trying to start in Froberger’s language, but quickly evolving into something abstract. I deliberately played a violin on 415 while the harp was on 440, and since the Froberger ended in c major, I had to start in c sharp major. This is not a tonality we usually play or improvise in, and the difficulty of finding the right chords, combined with the covered sound of the violin (no open strings could be used) contributed to the character of the piece.
Both Vera and Matthias spontaneously offered an impro of their own, and the concert ended with the main piece of the programme, a trio sonata in scordatura by Biber (Partia I from Harmonia artificioso-ariosa 1696).

It was my first concert with an audience in a long time, a big relief, luckily followed by many others.