'The path of righteousness leads through the darkness,' wrote one New York Times critic after a performance of in vain. The spiral of human development - which we tend to believe is only illusory in times of social upheaval - is reminiscent of M. C. Escher's lithograph of flights of steps that are at once ascending and descending. The work now occupies cult status on the programmes of concert halls around the world. There is much evidence of this, including a ranking by the Italian classical music magazine Classic Voice in which the piece was voted most influential work of the 21st century by more that 100 renowned music critics. This is the first time a Hungarian orchestra has undertaken to play it.
One of the difficulties with performing the work is that the score demands complete darkness in the concert hall at several points - requiring the musicians to play without sheet music or a conductor. The unique feature of the piece is that the western tempered scale - which defines the sound of the modern piano, for instance - and world of tones between the acoustically clean intervals present themselves in parallel in the intonation of the instruments. The acoustic analogy to the Escher staircase that defines the sound is the Shepard scale, which creates the illusion of a tone that continually ascends or descends in pitch.
The concert is part of the Transparent Sound New Music Festival, which takes place from 4 to 20 January 2019 as a collaboration between a number of Budapest venues. The works to be performed will be preceded in part by interactive and engaging activities to help guide the audience through the diverse and innovative world of new music.

The first half of the performance will be a discussion to introduce the music of Haas, to be followed by the entire work after the interval.

We would like to draw your attention that during the performance strong sound effect, light effect and a long darkness is expected!

Presented by: Müpa Budapest