MIF11 invited audiences to experience a programme of virtuosic chamber music, given a very special staging in the last remaining medieval quarter of Manchester.

Within the atmospheric spaces of Chetham’s School of Music, violinist Alina Ibragimova performed a programme of musically connected works which were given a beguiling new visual context by legendary filmmakers and stage designers the Quay brothers. This promenade piece led audiences of just 100 around the building and featured a newly commissioned stop-motion animated film as a counterpoint to Bartok’s masterpiece, Solo Violin Sonata.

This was Alina Ibragimova’s second appearance at MIF after her extraordinary performances of Bach in the Zaha Hadid Architects space of 2009. Like the Bach/ Hadid event, Bach, Berio, Biber & Bartók, Béla was part of MIF’s ongoing interest in finding new ways to present great works of the past.

Berio Sequenza VIII
Bach Ciaccona from Partita No. 2 in D minor bWV 1004
Biber Pasacaglia from the Mystery Sonatas
Bartók Sonata for Solo violin Sz. 117, bb 124

Alina Ibragimova Violin
The Quay Brothers Directors and Designers

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