ELISABETH GETS HER WAY

This solo, created and performed by Jan Martens is a danced portrait of the Polish-born Elisabeth Chojnacka (1939–2017), an exceptionally talented and passionate musician who contributed to the revival of harpsichord music in the middle of the twentieth century.

While in 1968 the Paris student revolt challenged old ideals, Elisabeth Chojnacka  discovered avant-garde composers such as François-Bernard Mâche and began to play more regularly the few contemporary works for harpsichord, in addition to the classical pieces that were always part of her repertoire. In part thanks to her talent and perseverance, a number of composers (Ligeti, Xenakis, Ferrari, Berio, Halffter, etc.) wrote new work for the harpsichord in the 1970s and 1980s. These were often dedicated to Elisabeth Chojnacka .

ELISABETH GETS HER WAY wants to pay tribute to this exceptional woman. The solo is a danced portrait with a wide-ranging soundtrack, consisting of a selection of the music she recorded in her fifty-year career: from Nyman to Montague via Ligeti, all performed by Elisabeth Chojnacka . The objective is to keep the dance close to the sometimes complex scores. Jan Martens ‘plays’ his body like Elisabeth Chojnacka  played the harpsichord. Different styles of movement are brought together, just as she effortlessly wound her way between registers and genres with a few centuries of musical history in her fingers. The dance pieces in the solo are complemented by a documentary layer in which Elisabeth Chojnacka  work and life are discussed narratively, among others through interviews with people who were close to her.

Jan Martens set to work earlier with a performance by Elisabeth Chojnacka  in any attempt will end in crushed bodies and shattered bones (premiere on February 4, 2021), a work for 17 dancers. The concerto for harpsichord and strings by Polish composer Henryk Gorecki, which she performed with the London Sinfonietta, plays an important role in that production. In 2021 it will be fifty years exactly since Elisabeth Chojnacka  released her first album: Clavecin 2000. An ideal moment to pay homage to this remarkable woman with a solo in which she is given the time and space she deserves.