Smashingly effective

The wall street journal

Celebrated for their unique interpretations of original and transcribed works for piano and percussion, the Vesna Duo is ‘smashingly effective’ (Wall Street Journal). Hailing from Georgia and Serbia, Liana Pailodze Harron and Ksenija Komljenović explore a diverse blend of musical traditions and cultures in their programs. Their performance at Duke Arts is no exception, with the pair bringing their “Roots and Rhizomes” program featuring works by Georgian composer Davitashvili, Belgrade-born composer Sedlar and Israeli bassist and singer Avishai Cohen to the concert hall. These are paired with Komljenović’s arrangements of Stravinsky’s infamous (and riotous) ballet The Rite of Spring and Piazzolla’s La Muerte Del Ángel, the third of four movements of a suite based on a play by Alberto Rodríguez Muñoz called Tango del Ángel. In the play, the music accompanies the story of an angel who tries to heal the broken spirits of humans in a Buenos Aires tenement, only to die in a knife fight.

Program

Roots & Rhizomes

George Gershwin arr. Harron: Prelude No. 1 from Three Preludes (1926)
Camille Saint-Saëns arr. Ferrière: Danse Macabre (1874)
Claude Debussy arr. Komljenović: Clair de Lune (1905)
J. S. Bach arr. Harron: Fugue N. 9 from The Art of the Fugue, BWV 1080 (1740 – 46)
Arvo Pärt arr. Komljenović: Variations for The Healing of Arinushka (1977)
Igor Stravinsky arr. Komljenović: The Rite of Spring (1913)

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