On April 25, the Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik hosts the world premiere of ‘Partially Restored Landscapes,’ a new piece by Dmitri Kourliandski commissioned by Quatuor Diotima.

Dmitri Kourliandski about his piece:

Partially Restored Landscapes is my fourth quartet – and second I composed for Quatuor Diotima after Maps of non-existent cities. Bludenz (2014).

The material of the composition consists of one hundred encoded messages, which the performers are invited to translate into sound. The notation is based on a free imitation of a code made up of names and dates – signals of this kind can be intercepted on certain radio frequencies (so called “numbers stations” [1]). To avoid any emotional attachment to these names and dates, I generated them with the help of a computer.

What musicians play and what listeners hear are not notes or sounds but a stream of names, emptied of their bearers, ready to be filled with the destinies and meanings that musicians and listeners endow them with. This is an attempt to overcome the safe abstraction of sound, a shift from aesthetics to ethics, where the level of mutual responsibility is significantly increased.

[1] – A numbers station is a shortwave radio station characterized by broadcasts of formatted numbers, which are believed to be addressed to intelligence officers operating in foreign countries. Most identified stations use speech synthesis to vocalize numbers, although digital modes such as phase-shift keying and frequency-shift keying, as well as Morse code transmissions, are not uncommon. (from Wikipedia article “Numbers station”)

Program:

JOHANNES MARIA STAUD

Jagende Wolken, blendendes Blau! für Blechbläser-Quintett (2024/25)

German premiere

DMITRI KOURLIANDSKI

Partially restored Landscapes für Streichquartett (2026)

World premiere

CHRISTIAN MASON

Towards a not yet remembered past… für Streichquartett (2026)

World premiere