Drei Aquarelle (Three Watercolors) (2016)
(for accordion, piano and string trio)

Like a painting created with watercolours, the ‘Three Watercolours’ series of works is about subtle traces of colour, delicate structures and their overlapping, transparency, various mixing ratios and the intensification of colours and shapes when the means are condensed. With this particular instrumentation, Márton Illés was able to venture into new sound spaces with his approach to the Three Watercolours. Beforehand, he borrowed a bayan, an Eastern European accordion, and experimented with the sounds. In the piece, after isolated impulses, the instruments gradually come together to interact. Powerful and fragile shapes are juxtaposed and negotiated with each other. While the accordion's powerful sound is initially dominant, gentle impulses from the strings are soon transferred so that the accordion also reveals its delicate facets. In the middle section, pulsating string movements come together to form a maelstrom, enriched with powerful accents from the piano and accordion. This shared energy leads to a dynamisation of the overall event, in which the piano and accordion finally detach themselves from the strings. After a caesura, the perspective changes: gradually, the rhythm of a funeral march emerges in the piano and, as the piece progresses, the structures of all the voices seem to be damaged. What follows is a retreat to the rigidity of fading away.

Eckhard Weber