Hommeet divinité

A programme for string quartet with narrator, based on a composition by Sophie Lacaze, ‘L'Agneau mystique’, premiered by the Quatuor Adastra in August 2023. The work is inspired by the famous polyptych painted on wood by Hubert van Eyck and finished by Jan van Eyck, The Adoration of the Mystic Lamb or Ghent Altar, completed in 1432, a masterpiece of Flemish Primitive painting that can be admired in St Bavo's Cathedral. ... along with Haydn's The Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross - 1787.

It was for the Good Friday devotions in Cadiz that Haydn wrote his Seven Last Words, in 1786 in an orchestral version. The task of composing a purely instrumental ‘oratorio’ comprising seven slow, contemplative movements was not an easy one, but the result is a sublime work of great intensity and nobility, whose version for string quartet enjoyed immense popularity.