Photo of the Adastra Quartet

TerraMemoria

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Note of intent

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Premiered in 2021 at the Festival Musica, this programme brings together three recent works that have left their mark on today's string quartet repertoire: Murs et Racines composed by Clara Olivares for the Adastra Quartet in 2021 (co-commissioned by the Festival Musica and the Adastra Quartet), Kaija Saariaho's second string quartet Terra memoria (2006) and Christophe Bertrand's String Quartet II (2010).

In her book Au bonheur des morts, the philosopher Vinciane Despret asserts that the dead remain among us and interfere in our lives: ‘The burden of offering them “more” existence falls to us’, she asserts. This vision forms the very fabric of this programme. Kaija Saariaho dedicates Terra memoria ‘to those who have left us’, transforming the musical material into a metaphor for remembrance and its reanimation.

As for Clara Olivares, she pays tribute to Christophe Bertrand - who left us early but is still with us - and whose discovery of Quatuor II at Musica in 2011 inspired her to take up composition.

Program

duration: 50 minutes

  • Clara Olivares

    String quartet Murs et Racines (2021)
    (co-commissioned by Musica and Quatuor Adastra)

  • Kaika Saariaho

    String quartet n°2, Terra Memoria (2006)

  • Christophe Bertrand

    String quartet II (2010)
Quatuor