The well-known Quatuor Diotima of Paris stars this Sunday in Girona (and on Tuesday the 24th at the Palau de la Música Catalana) in the world premiere of the String Quartet no. 6 Pluie Oblique by Benet Casablancas, a commission given to the Sabadell composer by the Auditori de Girona and to which the modernist hall joined through the scholarships for composers awarded by the Barcelona City Council. The concert also includes his Quartet no. 3, whose performance had to be canceled due to covid.
Following the line of serial commissions made by the Auditori de Girona, first to Hèctor Parra, from whom he requested an album of piano pieces inspired by different visual artists, and then to Joan Magrané, who composed his Missa a sis veus at the rate of one movement per year (the fifth premiered it at the Nits de Clàssica Festival), now the Girona venue has opted to add one more quartet to the Casablancas catalog with this Pluie Oblique, about eleven minutes long, which is inspired by some verses by Fernando Pessoa.
Obviously it is not a literal or programmatic piece, since the Catalan maestro’s music is abstract, but “it is inspired and poetic,” says Víctor García de Gomar, who has continued to remain linked to the Auditori de Girona since he was named artistic director of the Liceu. It includes Benet’s own ingredients, he explains: an emotional impact on the public, “which is an idea that he never renounces”, an influence of Japonism mixed with a certain Mediterranean nature and that lyrical point… All of this supported by an abstract idea , a search for textures and impacts.
The Quatuor Diotima, one of the most sought-after and prestigious on the international scene, will thus perform a piece in four movements that travel from the static to the dynamic, passing through a lament and a part of brilliance, to return to the initial stasis and close the circle. . The program also includes the Quartet in F major by Ravel, a composer who has been influential for all composers of the 21st century. To finish with Quartet no. 3 Raging in the Dark by Casablancas, a more ambitious piece in terms of structure and duration.
Composed of the violinists Yung-Peng Zhao and Léo Marillier, the viola player Franck Chevalier and the cellist Alexis Descharmes, the Diotima has specialized in premieres of contemporary work such as the Arditti Quartet, the group founded in 1974 by the British violinist Irvine. Arditti and who precisely recorded the entire Benet Casablancas quartets when there were three of them. The Diotimas, for their part, have recorded the entirety of Magrané’s quartets. And now they dare to perform two of the Casablancas quartets.
The musician, who has been named resident composer of the Teatre Principal de Sabadell for the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons, last season obtained a residency at the National Center for Musical Diffusion (of Inaem) in Madrid with concerts, premieres and activities diverse throughout Spain, including the world premiere of his Violin Concerto, with Leticia Moreno as soloist and the ONE conducted by David Afkham.
Just before today’s concert, Sunday, the composer will hold a public talk in the Girona Auditorium with Víctor García de Gomar. It will be at 5 p.m.
