There is no chamber music hall in the Netherlands where string quartet music lights up more glowingly than in the Willem Twee Toonzaal. Once again this year, a renowned string quartet will be a guest for a lunch concert. Cross-border, contemporary quartet music is in the safe hands of the French Quatuor Diotima. During previous editions of November Music, the quartet already amazed with razor-sharp and intense performances. 

Commissioned by the festival, Dutch composer Bram Kortekaas is writing a new string quartet for the virtuoso French. Kortekaas uses a sound language that speaks directly to the heart, inspired by political and current events. While the world tumbles from one crisis to another, this is often not noticeable in everyday life: between climate alarms and air raid sirens, everyday routines prevail. This enigmatic contradiction is central to the string quartet Allarme enigmatico. The element that connects the quartet members is the enigmatic scale. This unusual scale is woven into the thematic and melodic material of all four players. Bram Kortekaas studied at the Amsterdam Conservatory with kindred composers such as Willem Jeths and Wim Henderickx.

Diotima also plays the third string quartet Sintonia (2020) by Oscar Bianchi (1975). Bianchi excels in graceful, virtuoso music with great dramatic expressiveness. In his quartet Sintonia, composer Bianchi launches into a jubilant hymn about the beauty of being different. According to the composer, embracing otherness contributes to meaningful dialogue and ultimately to our intellectual and artistic progress.

Diotima completes the concert with a true classic from the quartet repertoire: Arnold Schönberg’s Third String Quartet. The quartet, dating from 1927, shows a mature Schönberg. His famous twelve-tone technique had already reached full maturity. In the breathtaking, four-movement work, Schönberg masterfully nods to Schubert’s great predecessor and classical forms such as the rondo.

In collaboration with Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ. Thanks to Pro Helvetia.

Programme

Bram Kortekaas – Allarme enigmatico (commissioned by November Music)

Oscar Bianchi – Sintonia

Arnold Schönberg – Third String Quartet

The concert is a part of the November Music Festival.