POLYPHONIC DIALOGUES - Joachim Kwetzinsky

The Russian composers Dmitri Shostakovich and Rodion Shchedrin each composed a set of 24 preludes and fugues for solo piano. When a selection from these sets are combined into a new arrangement, we get POLYPHONIC DIALOGUES that move between the boarders of tonality, often with rhythmic elements from the world of jazz. The dialogues are characterized by humour and irony, but also by melancholy and anger. There is a lot of playfulness, combined with seriousness, with perhaps a little greeting from Bach.

The polyphonic structure allows many voices to be heard at the same time. Sometimes disharmony arises, other times harmony; the distinctive character of each voice is preserved, however, while still giving the feeling that they belong together. It is precisely such a combining of voices which reveals life's diversity and complexity in human experience. Or to put it in the words of the Russian composer Mikhail Glinka, "everything in life is counterpoint; that is, contrast".

Joachim Kwetzinsky is a young, prominent and versatile Norwegian pianist. He gained his postgraduate diploma at the Norwegian Academy of Music where he studied with Einar Steen-Nøkleberg, and he has also studied with Liv Glaser and Jiri Hlinka. Kwetzinsky was a prize winner at the Concours Grieg in 2002, and in 2004 he won Rikskonsertene's three-year launch programme for young musicians, INTRO-Classical. In 2009 he received the Robert Levin Prize at a concert during the Bergen International Festival. Kwetzinsky has appeared at numerous festivals and given recitals in twenty countries. He also appears together with cellist Johannes Martens in Elliott Carter's cello sonata on the critically acclaimed "Figments and Fragments" released by 2L in 2008.

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