World Premiere of a New Orchestral Work by Jana Kmiťová, First Performances of Works by Hans Krása, Pascal Dusapin and Valentin Bibik, and the World Premiere of the Revised Version of Peter Kolman’s Violin Concerto
The closing concert of the 18th Melos-Étos Festival will offer an exceptional encounter between music, memory and artistic freedom.
The 18th edition of the Melos-Étos International Festival of Contemporary Music will culminate on Friday, 13 November 2026, at 7:00 pm, with a closing concert at the Grand Concert Studio of Slovak Radio in Bratislava. The Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra will perform under the baton of conductor Marián Lejava, with violinist Milan Paľa as soloist. The programme brings together works by composers whose lives and artistic careers were profoundly shaped by the totalitarian regimes of the 20th century, alongside music by contemporary composers, and features two world premieres and three Slovak premieres.
The closing concert has been organised in collaboration with the French association Forum Voix Étouffées, whose mission is to commemorate and promote the music of composers persecuted by totalitarian regimes in the 20th and 21st centuries. The programme is therefore more than a showcase of outstanding compositional voices: it is also a reminder of the price artistic freedom can carry.
The concert will open with Overture for Small Orchestra by Czech composer of German-Jewish origin Hans Krása (1899–1944), receiving its Slovak premiere. Krása, whose musical talent developed through contact with leading figures of European musical modernism, was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp during the Second World War. Despite the extraordinarily difficult conditions, he continued to compose and organise musical activities. His best-known work, the children’s opera Brundibár, was performed more than fifty times in Theresienstadt. The composer was murdered in Auschwitz in October 1944. His overture, written in the camp, stands as a remarkable testament to creative vitality and artistic imagination in the face of inhuman circumstances.
One of the highlights of the evening will be the world premiere of TexTy V, a work for large orchestra by Slovak composer Jana Kmiťová (b. 1976). The piece forms part of an ongoing cycle in which the composer explores the relationships between music, poetry and language. Here, text is not treated as content to be conventionally set to music, but becomes sound material in its own right. Whispers, breath, phonemes and fragments of words enter the musical structure and become an integral part of it. Through reduction, silence and extended performance techniques, Kmiťová creates a distinctive atmosphere of inner monologue. Her work once again demonstrates the potential to transcend the boundaries between individual art forms.
Another Slovak premiere will be Exeo (Solo No. 5 for Orchestra) by French composer Pascal Dusapin (b. 1955), one of the most prominent figures in contemporary French music. The work belongs to his extensive cycle Sept Solos pour orchestre, composed over a period of seventeen years. In this cycle, Dusapin explores the orchestra as a single living organism, seeking new possibilities for orchestral form. In Exeo, sound masses unfold like a wave, gradually spreading across the extreme registers and creating tension between the highest and lowest sonorities. The result is a concentrated orchestral statement characterised by intense internal movement and dramatic energy.
A special place in the programme is reserved for Ukrainian composer Valentin Bibik (1940–2003), whose life eventually led him into exile in Israel. His composition Dedication for string orchestra and organ will receive its Slovak premiere. In contrast to the more expressive dimensions of Bibik’s output, this work is distinguished by its gentle lyricism, meditative character and spiritual depth. The composer dedicated it to Armenian conductor and violist Suren Kocharian, yet its expressive scope extends far beyond a personal tribute. It is a meditation on eternity, humanity, beauty and the tragedy of the world.
The concert will conclude with the Violin Concerto by Slovak composer Peter Kolman (1937), receiving its world premiere in the revised version completed in 2003. The soloist will be the acclaimed Slovak violinist Milan Paľa. Kolman was one of the important representatives of the musical avant-garde of the 1960s and played a significant role in the development of experimental music in Slovakia. Following political persecution during the period of so-called Normalisation, he was forced to leave his homeland and emigrated to Austria in 1977, where he lived until the end of his life. His Violin Concerto was originally composed in 1960, towards the end of his composition studies at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava under Ján Cikker. The work combines influences from Béla Bartók and the Second Viennese School, revealing Kolman’s compositional precision, musicality and ability to explore a broad spectrum of emotions. The composer returned to the work decades later to revise it, with the primary aim of deepening and condensing its original musical expression.
The closing concert of Melos-Étos 2026 traces a dramaturgical arc between historical memory and the present, between the personal destinies of composers and the universal expressive power of music. Five works, five distinctive artistic worlds and one shared space in which music becomes a testament to human experience, creative freedom and the enduring power of art to survive despite the adversity of history.
Closing Concert of the 18th Melos-Étos Festival
Date: Friday, 13 November 2026, at 7:00 pm
Venue: Grand Concert Studio of Slovak Radio, Mýtna 1, Bratislava
Performers: Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Marián Lejava
Soloist: Milan Paľa – violin
Tickets: €14 / €7
Tickets are available exclusively online via Ticketportal:
https://www.ticketportal.sk/event/Melos-Etos-2026
The concert is held with the support of the European Union.