Program notes to Kαλός per violino solo (2023) by Alberto Mastracci

„When we played together in the Young Researchers program last year, Oskar, Jure, Tobias and I agreed on the greek word Kαλός to represent our project. One of the Greek words for “beautiful”, Kαλός, refers to the belief that outward beauty corresponds to an intrinsic “goodness”. Rather than following any dogmatic set of ideas, we were guided by what we considered beautiful and valuable. This approach was the reason I was able to start composing, which I had never done to any serious extent before last year. The path that we opened together is still the path that I am following today. Therefore, in writing a piece for Oskar, I couldn’t help but draw from the wealth of musical material we made together. This piece is inspired both by the protocols we used in Kαλός as a quartet and by the sound code that emerged from our work together. One word that was used a lot to describe our music was “episodic”. We would latch onto something that one of us had played and go with it, then find something else and follow that instead. The music would end when we felt it needed to end, and that was it. This was a revelation to me: you can create a moment, enjoy it (or not), and discard it as you create a new one. Kαλός for solo violin (2023) is based on this idea. Each passage is an episode, each episode happens and goes away. Like memories or dreams, each moment is related to every other moment, yet they are not connected in any evident way, other than the succession in which they are presented.“ – Alberto Mastracci