In 1993 German-Russian composer Alfred Schnittke made an adaption of the Epilogue of ballet 'Peer Gynt' for cello, piano and tape. The beauty and transparency of his adaptation, as well his elegant reduction of a grand symphony orchestra to chamber music strength, inspired cellist Maya Fridman to arrange a few parts of the three acts of the ballet for the same strength.
To Maya as well as to the Japanese pianist Tomoko Mukaiyama, the character Peer Gynt, concocted by Norvegian writer Henrik Ibsen, is a metaphore for a man who identifies himself through the mirror of his surroundings and who has lost the connection with his inner self. At the end of his life he’s reminiscing that he is nothing more than ‘an onion’, robbed of this personality and thus he will vanish into nothing. Maya saw a parallel between Ibsen's Peer Gynt and many people around her: where Peer Gynt completely lost himself in fantasmagic adventures, people nowadays are overflown with social media. What is real? What does it mean to be your true self? This hot item has been captured in an ingenious way by music of Schnittke's Peer Gynt.
De serie Meesterlijk! wordt mede mogelijk gemaakt door Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky en Stichting Ambasadeurs van het Grachtenfestival.
