The Slovakian violinist Miloš Valent makes his Tafelmusik debut March 7–9 with Baroque & Folk, a vibrant exploration of the connections between two contrasting traditions, featuring multi-instrumental virtuoso Jan Rokyta, and percussionist Naghmeh Farahmand. This cross-cultural pollination is guaranteed to get toes tapping as the sounds of Tafelmusik’s baroque strings, winds, and continuo intermingle with the sonorities of the cimbalom, folk wind instruments, and percussion.
We chatted with Miloš about the sources that inspired the program and the ways in which fate sometimes intervenes by bringing like-minded artists together to create wonderful new things.
How did music first enter your life?
I come from a family where there was singing and amateur playing on folk instruments at every celebration. Also, my mother worked in a music school, so from childhood I was involved in these family events and had to play mostly songs I didn’t even know. It was really valuable training for a musician.
In addition to your work in early music, you collaborate with jazz musicians and have musical roots in folk traditions. Do you keep these areas completely separate or allow them to intermingle?
Most of the projects in my life as a musician who is engaged in informed performance of early music are connected to repertoire from the 16th to the 19th centuries. The courage to link different genres and styles came gradually, almost as if I had to first put a number of melodies, compositions, and ideas from baroque, contemporary, or folk music into the bank. When the bank finally overflowed, different ideas started to emerge, which led me towards the idea that there is really only one music, so we can always try to link these styles and genres in different ways. I think we see more of that kind of thinking nowadays, but 20 years ago it was considered quite bold and provocative.
How did the idea for the Baroque & Folk program come about?
The connection between baroque and folk music also came gradually, after I discovered dance collections from the 18th century in the Slovakian archives. The beauty of forgotten melodies that were written down directly by musicians in the moment — similar to the fake book* we know in jazz — opened up before me. As I gradually played through hundreds of tunes from the collections, the affinities with dances I knew from Telemann’s suites began to emerge. So I started to research Telemann in detail and gradually everything began to fall into place. A program was created where the main theme is a “musical travelogue” through the countries, and in each one there is a hidden connection and inspiration from 18th-century folk music, so we gave it the name Musica Globus.
*fake book refers to a collection of lead sheets for musicians, especially a songbook of standards for jazz instrumentalists. Usually a fake book contains the simplest version of sheet music and does not include arrangements or interpretive markings.
What unusual sounds and instruments can we look forward to hearing?
If you look carefully at the program, at first glance you’ll notice a large number of tunes. This means that the tunes and dances change quickly, with new colours from different instruments. The baroque string ensemble, which is necessary to interpret the pieces by Telemann, forms the basis. Gradually we come to the highlight of the program: Janko (Jan Rokyta), a multi-instrumentalist playing the cimbalom, various flutes, and the Armenian duduk. Various eastern percussion instruments — the daf, riqq, and others —are added to the folk dances.
Tell us more about working with multi-instrumentalist Jan Rokyta. Do you collaborate with him on a regular basis?
Meeting with Janko Rokyta was fateful for me in a way, because it is not often that musicians have such a similar view of music: the relationship to folk music connected with the study of baroque music, natural improvisation without words, and experience with contemporary music connected with my own composing. In addition to the Musica Globus program, we have created the Flauto Ultimo project together, where Jan and our ensemble Solamente Naturali play a variety of recorders, performing music ranging from 15th-century pieces to contemporary works, including Jan’s own compositions. In 2024 we recorded a new CD together called One Music, in collaboration with Barokksolistene, where the idea of forgotten melodies in both Central Europe and Scandinavia inspired compositions that remind us that we often hear melodies floating around and don’t know where they actually come from.
If music had not been possible as a career, what would you most likely be doing now?
During the freezing of everything, when the fear of COVID shut people in their homes and life came to a standstill for a while, the thought naturally occurred to me: what could I actually do now? I was taken aback when I realized that there was nothing else I could do! After a couple of clueless months, I found a way out. I locked myself into a room where I was player and audience rolled into one. I started playing pieces for unaccompanied violin solo. Suddenly I was happy to be a musician. That set me free…
Baroque & Folk
Like a kitchen party in the concert hall.
March 7-9, 2025
Jeanne Lamon Hall
