Messiaen Festival: Diotima Quartet 3-3

As part of the Messiaen Festival, running from 25 July to 1 August, discover:

The Diotima Quartet and soprano Karen Vourc’h, who present a journey between tradition and innovation, creating a dialogue between the music of Kaija Saariaho and that of Claude Debussy.

With Terra Memoria, dedicated to “those who have left us”, Saariaho draws on two words rich in connotations: the earth, which signifies the musical material, and memory, the way in which she works with it, between transformation and permanence. Changing Light, composed on the English translation of the Hebrew text Siddur shim Shalom, weaves an intimate and fragile dialogue between the soprano and the violin, reflecting the fragility of our uncertain existence. Cloud Trio, inspired by observations of the sky in the French Alps, explores the individual lines and emerging textures of the three string instruments. Finally, Die Aussicht musically translates the composer’s impressions of a poem by Hölderlin.

In contrast, Debussy’s Quartet, composed in 1893, marks a decisive milestone in the history of the genre. Through the richness of its timbres, the flexibility of its form and its sense of colour, it paves the way for a new conception of the string quartet.

Performed by exceptional musicians, this programme creates a dialogue between two worlds where sound, light and memory weave landscapes of rare intensity.

Diotima Quartet:

Yun-Peng Zhao, violin – Leo Marillier, violin – Franck Chevalier, viola – Alexis Descharmes, cello – Karen Vourc’h, soprano