Atlantis

for baritone, boy soprano, cimbalom and orchestra

Commissioned by WDR Cologne

Description

First performance: 17 November, 1995, Cologne
WDR Symph.Orch.,
Conductor: Peter Eötvös
Dietrich Henschel, Marta Fábián
Boy sopran, Kölner Domchor

Text: Sándor Weöres

Did Atlantis really exist? Where and when? Was it just in someone´s imagination? A dream or a nightmare perhaps? Atlantis is the symbol of terrifying natural catastrophies, but it can also be interpreted as a sign of social and ethnic conflicts – it is just ahead of us. Humanity is continuously working on sinking itself, the apocalyptic fall of the anticipated final judgement is a bitter topicality.

Basically, Eötvös is an optimist, he never gives up hope. For him the “Artist” is a seismograph of the future who produces utopias for tomorrow. Eötvös rephrases Mussorgsky´s famous saying: “the past is with us in the present” into: “the future originates from the present.”

… We are all under water: this is the situation that Eötvös places the audience into right at the beginning of the piece. A world of fantasy-sounds surrounds us, from which the sounds approach us like far-off hallucinations… The ten string players and the ten percussionists symbolize the five twins of Poseidon and Kleitos, the first ten kings of Atlantis…
At the end of each movement, soft Transylvanian dance music can be heard from the distance, like the low, scratched recording on an old phonograph.
Is this all that remained after us? – we might well ask.

/Thomas Schäfer – Cologne, 1995/

Performances

21 Feb, 2020

Budapest, Hungary

Eötvös: Atlantis, Dialog mit Mozart, Reading Malevich

Zsolt Haja, baritone
Miklós Lukács, cimbalom
Boy sopran, Radio Childrenchoir

Cond: Peter Eötvös
Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra

Müpa

1 Nov, 2014

Porto, Portugal

Eötvös: Atlantis

Stravinsky: Concerto in D
Birtwistle: new piano concerto (Pierre-Laurent Aimard, piano)

Christian Miedl, baritone
Miklós Lukács, cimbalom
Boy sopran

Conductor: Peter Eötvös
Porto Symphony Orchestra

Casa da Musica

24 Sep, 2010

Strasbourg, France

Eötvös: Atlantis

Strasbourg Musica Festival

Christian Miedl, baritone
Boy sopran

Cond.: Pascal Rophé
Orchestre Philharmonic Radio France

22 Aug, 2010

Shanghai, China

Eötvös: Atlantis, Paris-Dakar

Szeged Contemporary Balett
ArtOrchestra Budapest

Shanghai World Expo
Hungarian National Day

15 Sep, 2007

Luzern, Switzerland

Eötvös: Atlantis

Luzern Festival

Christian Miedl, baritone
Boy sopran

Conductor: Peter Eötvös
Junge Philharmonie Zentralschweiz

23 Mar, 2007

Torino, Italy

Eötvös: Atlantis

Christian Miedl, baritone
Miklós Lukács, cimbalom
Boy sopran

Conductor: Peter Eötvös
RAI National Symphony Orchestra

22 Mar, 2007

Torino, Italy

Eötvös: Atlantis

Christian Miedl, baritone
Miklós Lukács, cimbalom
Boy sopran

Conductor: Peter Eötvös
RAI National Symphony Orchestra

9 Feb, 2007

Paris, France

Eötvös: Atlantis

Dufourt: Down to a sunless sea and Tempesta

Christian Miedl, baritone
Michel Cerutti, cimbalom
Boy sopran

Conductor: Peter Eötvös
Ensemble Intercontemporain, Conservatoire Superieur Paris

Cité de la Musique

8 Jan, 2007

Hamburg, Germany

Eötvös: Atlantis

Liszt: Mephisto Walz
Bartók: Miraculous Mandarin

Christian Miedl, baritone
Miklós Lukács, cimbalom
Boy sopran

Conductor: Peter Eötvös
Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg

Laeiszhalle

7 Jan, 2007

Hamburg, Germany

Eötvös: Atlantis

Liszt: Mephisto Walz
Bartók: Miraculous Mandarin

Christian Miedl, baritone
Miklós Lukács, cimbalom
Boy sopran

Conductor: Peter Eötvös
Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg

Laeiszhalle

22 Sep, 2006

Warsaw, Poland

Eötvös: Atlantis

Warsaw Autumn Festival

Wojtek Drabowicz, baritone
Miklós Lukács, cimbalom

Cond: Zsolt Nagy

Filharmonia Narodowa

10 Mar, 2005

Szeged, Hungary

Eötvös: Atlantis, IMA

Szeged Contemporary Dance Company
Choreographer: Tamás Juronics

BMC CD Playback together with "IMA" by Eötvös

1 Oct, 2004

Frankfurt, Germany

Eötvös: Atlantis

Zemlinsky: Die Seejungfrau