Eulirio Chamber Concerts 2026
Following the Song of the Folk

In 2025 we commemorate the 80th anniversary of the death of Béla Bartók – composer, researcher, and passionate collector of folk songs. He stands as a model for an entire generation of musicians who not only documented the melodies of the people but also transformed them into art music, giving them new life.

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Claude Debussy, in praising the incomparable beauty of a composition by Isaac Albéniz, once wrote:

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“Without directly using folk melodies, this music comes from someone who has absorbed them so deeply that one can no longer distinguish between the source and the work of art.”

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In these words lies the key to genuine popular inspiration: it is not about quoting or varying a melody, but about internalizing a spirit — “shaped by an instinct that acts unconsciously where the influence of urban culture is lacking” (Bartók).

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Percy Grainger followed a similar path. In England, Scandinavia, and North America, he collected, recorded, and documented folk songs. About the singers he met on his travels, he wrote:

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“These folk-singers were the kings and queens of song! No concert singer I ever heard — dull dogs that they are — approached these rural warblers in variety of tone quality, range of dynamics, rhythmic resourcefulness and individuality of style.”

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The qualities of rural and folk melodies stand in contrast to the theatrical pursuit of effect: intuitive and natural, as opposed to mannered and artificial. Bartók explicitly emphasized that the terms “primitive” and “simple” are by no means derogatory; on the contrary, they refer to an original, ideal authenticity — pure and unspoiled. In this sense, “simple” does not mean childish or banal, but rather genuine and sincere.

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These are precisely the qualities to which the Eulirio Association aspires and to which the motto “Bonae Gentis Tonus” alludes — a declaration of an art that rejects the standards imposed by market logic and blind academic prestige, in favor of an innate and irrepressible artistic vocation that seeks no external validation.

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One can only smile today at the elegance with which Bartók warns against any “bourgeois” performance — “marked by a certain boastful style, with excessive, unstructured glissandi that distort the proper quasi-dance rhythm — a consequence of the harmful influence of urban gypsy music, that is, of ‘bourgeois singing.’”

The three concerts we present focus on three geographical areas that touch on German culture while lying beyond its center.

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1 - The Hungarian tradition has undoubtedly influenced the great Viennese composers. Yet, as Bartók observed:

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“A difference between the present age and the 19th century lies in the fact that the influence of folk music at that time affected almost exclusively its external aspects: people limited themselves to adopting certain motifs, rhythms and characteristic ornaments […] qualities constantly mixed with the commonplaces of ‘Western’ music and a ‘decadent romantic sentimentalism.’”

 

Whether or not that sentimentalism is present in the Rondo alla Zingarese of the young Johannes Brahms’ Piano Quartet, we leave to the judgment of our audience. Authenticity, on the other hand, is clearly the artistic goal of Bartók’s Hungarian Peasant Songs and Romanian Folk Dances, with which we open the series.

Equally heartfelt are the references to children’s songs in Janáček’s Pohádka, written during a difficult period in the composer’s life – after the death of his daughter Olga, while he was still striving for musical recognition.

 

2 - The rebirth of a national musical language in Spain was delayed by historical circumstances; an equivalent to Chopin’s polonaises and mazurkas or Liszt’s rhapsodies reached the Iberian Peninsula only about half a century later. Once again, Bartók writes:

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“The Russian Stravinsky and the Spaniard De Falla probably made no systematic collections and may have taken their material only from collections made by others; but it is very likely that their knowledge of their countries’ folk music did not come exclusively from books or museums — and that they therefore had direct contact with living folk music.”

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For Bartók, it was not enough to imitate folk melodies and dress them in a “banal costume”; one had to convey their atmosphere. We believe that De Falla achieved this in one of the most emblematic works of the Spanish repertoire: Siete canciones populares españolas.

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A selection from Beethoven’s Folksong Settings connects this concert with the third, devoted to British music. In these arrangements, Beethoven performs precisely the operation Bartók described: framing folk motifs within a classical harmonic structure. This was also the intention of his patron, George Thomson, through whom we have some 180 such arrangements by Beethoven and a similar number by Haydn. Both composers spoke of the joy they felt in this work, and the results — including some rarely performed gems — make that joy evident.

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3 - Percy Grainger and Ralph Vaughan Williams may be seen as Bartók’s spiritual heirs in the systematic study of folk music. Grainger, an Australian by birth, collected material in various regions, including Scandinavia, Britain, and America. A virtuoso pianist and celebrated performer, he brought his folk-song arrangements to international stages — a symbol of the “union of opposites” (popular/cultivated, nature/culture) that lies at the heart of this festival’s concept.

Vaughan Williams, deeply influenced by English Baroque and British folk melodies, marked a turning point in English musical culture, which at that time was still dominated by German influence. His encounter with Ravel — decisive for this development — connects him with Frank Bridge, who also worked closely with the French composer and passed his artistic legacy on to Benjamin Britten.