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The Festival opened on 2 October 2015 with
an all-percussion concert by the renowned
Dutch percussion group Slagwerk Den
Haag (SDH). This is no ordinary percussion
ensemble, as SDH performs works of the
established repertoire on the traditional arsenal
of percussion instruments, but also improvises
on custom-made percussion instruments made
of unconventional material such as porcelain,
glass or 3D-printed objects.
On 4 October 2015, the Festival hosted
another eminent ensemble: Het Collectief
from Belgium, renowned for its intriguing
and idiosyncratic sound and for creating an
international furore, with daring crossovers
between the classical and the contemporary
repertoire. The highlights of Het Collectief’s
concert in Cyprus were two momentous works
written during the 20
th
century: the first was
Arnold Schönberg’s
Chamber Symphony No.1
,
written towards the end of the composer’s first
stylistic period during which he composed his
more conventional masterpieces, including
Verklärte Nacht
; the work premiered in Cyprus
over 100 years after it was composed. The
second was Louis Andriessen’s subversive
Workers Union
, a striking work written in the
1970s revealing the composer’s resistance to
the status quo and manifesting his political
idealism. The programme also included works
by Kaija Saariaho and Cypriot composers
Christina Athinodorou and Haris Sofokleous.
The third Festival concert, on 6 October 2015,
presented the exceptional – and very well-
known to the Cyprus audience – violinist
Peter Sheppard Skaerved. The violinist joined
forces with Carly Lake (Horn) and Roderick
Chadwick (piano) in the two most important
works ever written for the specific combination
of instruments: The Horn Trios of Johannes
Brahms and György Ligeti. Brahms’ deeply
commemorative Horn Trio was written in 1865
while the composer was still mourning the
recent loss of his mother. This is unquestionably
one of the most contemplative works of the
chamber repertoire, revealing both a tenderly
nostalgic mood and a wistfully rustic quality.
Over a century later, Ligeti’s pursuit of new
compositional forms and means of expression,
which was often at odds with the various
