UnBREATHed

»As incomprehensible as Chinese«, a »Babylonian confusion«, »a concert which would please only a Moroccan, if that« – these comparisons came to a contemporary’s mind when listening to Beethoven’s »Große Fuge« Op. 133, the original finale of his String Quartet Op. 130, which was later replaced by a different piece. The Quatuor Diotima juxtaposes this piece – the height of modernism at the time – with two avant-garde compositions of our own time.

One brand-new work was written by the Japanese composer Misato Mochizuki, who combines western techniques with elements of Asian aesthetics in her works. Rebecca Saunders, on the other hand, wrote her piece for the Quatuor Diotima as early as 2017. She borrowed the title »Unbreathed« from one of her own poems, which precedes the music in the score. Two further motto texts were written by Samuel Beckett – in his obsessive repetitions and verbal labyrinths which always return to the point of departure, Saunders continues to find inspiration. 

Das Konzert wird von WDR 3 live übertragen und kann im Anschluss für 30 Tage auf wdr3.de nachgehört werden.