Sun 28 Jan 2024, 16:00 – HUMANITÉ, unmeasured, Baroque music & contemporary poetry

HUMANITÉ, unmeasured

HUMANITÉ, unmeasured is a musical performance reflecting on the variety and complexity of human emotions through dialogues between French early baroque music and contemporary poetry, performed by harpsichordist Christina Kwon and poet and traverso player Dorota Matejová. The poems, written by author-performer Dorota Matejová, reveal emotions in an intimate experience of a person living in the current times, pondering over hope, sorrow, love, desire, and more. The music is centred around chosen harpsichord pieces by French female composer Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre (1665-1729), written in the style of prélude non mesuré (the unmeasured prelude), a highly poetic and freely flowing musical style, to be sensitively realised by the interpreter.

The title HUMANITÉ, unmeasured, refers to humanity that we can all share, the very core of all human emotions, running through centuries, in the baroque times known  as passions or affects, up until as we experience them today. The title further refers to the unmeasured style of the chosen music by Elisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre, a style so unique and idiomatic for the harpsichord, allowing the interpreter to be expressive and imaginative in her performance. It is one of the most intimate compositional idioms for harpsichord music.

The poetics and the deep emotionality of the music and words intertwine in the performance by Christina and Dorota and invite their audiences to the world of imagination, sensitivity and ultimately, shared humanity.

Christina Kwon: harpsichord

Dorota Matejová: poetry, traverso