Ensemble Phœnix Basel

The title of this program, “Micropolyphony,” was coined by the Hungarian-Austrian composer György Ligeti. The term describes a compositional technique in which a large number of voices (often 20 or more) are interwoven so densely and closely that the individual lines are no longer perceptible to the listener as melodies. In the case of a piano duo, the possibilities are naturally limited, but in the third movement, Ligeti manages – through the overlapping rapid thirty-second-note runs within the soundscape created by the sustain pedal – to create the illusion of a constantly expanding and changing “sound cluster” that, like a living organism, slowly expands, contracts, and becomes brighter or darker. The second movement is a resonant, humorous homage to the fathers of American minimalist music, Steve Reich and Terry Riley.

In his sextet “Satka,” French composer Christophe Bertrand employs repetitive, interlocking sound patterns and phase shifts that are strongly reminiscent of Steve Reich’s minimalist music and György Ligeti’s micropolyphony.

“The weak interaction plays an important role in the proton-proton reaction that converts hydrogen into helium in the sun. The energy released during this process is the basis of the solar radiation reaching the Earth.” (G. F. H.)
Typical of Georg Friedrich Haas, the piece explores the microtonal inner world of sounds and translates this invisible yet life-giving physical phenomenon into a highly sensitive, hypnotic tapestry of sound. The work was commissioned in 2024 by the Israeli “Meitar Ensemble” and premiered in 2025 under the direction of Pierre-André Valade at the “Ultraschall Berlin” festival.

The German violinist and composer Friedemann Treiber is our “concertmaster” and, like his former teacher Hansheinz Schneeberger, reveres the music of Alban Berg. His distinctive musical language is inspired by the music of the Second Viennese School and moves between dodecaphony, limited aleatoricism, and free tonality and atonality, always driven by a strong desire for emotional expression.

Program