Concert by the Emerson String Quartet & Barbara Hannigan
© Marco Borggreve / Jürgen Frank
- Date
- 7 October 2023 – 8pm
- Place
- Auditorium
- Duration
- 3h
- Hours
- 20h
Barbara Hannigan is joining the Emerson String Quartet for their farewell concerts, first at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris on 7 October, then in Milan, for the Società del Quartetto, on 10 October 2023.
The Emerson String Quartet, one of the greatest string quartets of the past four decades, will disband in October 2023 after 47 years of a rich and award-winning musical life. Their latest album, Infinite Voyage, recently recorded with soprano Barbara Hannigan, features one of the most important chamber music works of the 20th century, Schoenberg's String Quartet No. 2 for soprano and string quartet, as well as Hindemith's sublime Melancholie, Op.13. For the quartet, Infinite Voyage captures not only the journey of a lifetime – with more than 30 acclaimed recordings, nine Grammys, three Gramophone Awards and a worldwide performing career – but also a lasting friendship with Barbara Hannigan.
For this concert at the Fondation, the Emerson String Quartet’s final appearance in France, the musicians wished to celebrate French music by enhancing the programme with Maurice Ravel's immense String Quartet in F major.
As a fond farewell to honour the import of this final concert, a very personal, 70-minute film showing behind-the-scenes moments during the recording of this last album, created and directed by French actor and director Mathieu Amalric, will be screened in the Auditorium.
THE PROGRAMME
1st segment
Screening of the film by Mathieu Amalric
2nd segment
Concert
- Paul Hindemith
- Mélancholie, op.13
- Maurice Ravel
- String Quartet in F major
- Arnold Schoenberg
- String Quartet No. 2, op.10
The artists
Quatuor Emerson
Eugene Drucker – violin
Philip Setzer – violin
Lawrence Dutton – viola
Paul Watkins – cello
The Emerson String Quartet will have its final season of concerts in 2022-23, disbanding after more than four decades as one of the world’s premier chamber music ensembles. “With musicians like this,” wrote a reviewer for The Times (London), “there must be some hope for humanity.” The Quartet has made more than 30 acclaimed recordings, and has been honored with nine GRAMMYs® (including two for Best Classical Album), three Gramophone Awards, the Avery Fisher Prize, and Musical America’s “Ensemble of the Year” award.
Dans sa mission plus large de faire vivre la forme du quatuor à cordes en lien direct avec son temps, il a commandé et créé des œuvres à des compositeurs parmi les plus respectés d'aujourd'hui et s'est associé à des solistes de premier plan tels que Renée Fleming, Barbara Hannigan, Evgeny Kissin, Emanuel Ax, Mstislav Rostropovich, Yefim Bronfman, James Galway, Edgar Meyer, Menahem Pressler, Leon Fleisher, André Previn et Isaac Stern, pour n'en citer que quelques-uns.
Pour son ultime saison, le Quatuor Emerson fera sa tournée d’adieu en Amérique du Nord puis en Europe. En octobre 2023 à New York le Quatuor Emerson fera ses adieux à la scène. Le concert sera filmé dans le cadre d'un documentaire prévu par le cinéaste Tristan Cook.
L’immense discographie du Quatuor Emerson comprend l'intégrale de l’œuvre pour quatuor à cordes de Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Bartók, Webern et Chostakovitch, ainsi que des coffrets CD des œuvres majeures de Haydn, Mozart, Schubert et Dvořák. Pour sa dernière saison, le Quatuor enregistrera le Deuxième Quatuor avec voix de Schoenberg avec Barbara Hannigan dont la sortie est annoncée en 2023, les sessions vidéos étant captées par Mathieu Amalric pour un court-métrage.
Formé en 1976 et résident à New York, le Quatuor Emerson a été l'un des premiers quatuors à faire alterner les violonistes au poste de premier violon. Le Quatuor, dont le nom est celui du poète et philosophe américain Ralph Waldo Emerson, concilie les carrières très actives de ses membres avec un engagement dans l'enseignement. Le Quatuor est en résidence à l'université de Stony Brook. En 2013, le violoncelliste Paul Watkins, éminent soliste, chef d'orchestre primé et musicien de chambre dévoué, a rejoint les premiers membres de la formation pour constituer le groupe actuel.
Barbara Hannigan
soprano
Embodying music with an unparalleled dramatic sensibility, soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan is an artist at the forefront of creation. Her artistic colleagues include Simon Rattle, Sasha Waltz, Kent Nagano, Vladimir Jurowski, John Zorn, Andreas Kriegenburg, Andris Nelsons, Esa Pekka Salonen, Christoph Marthaler, Antonio Pappano, Katie Mitchell, Kirill Petrenko, and Krszysztof Warlikowski. The late conductor and pianist Reinbert de Leeuw has been an extraordinary influence and inspiration on her development as a musician.
The Canadian musician has shown a profound commitment to the music of our time and has given the world première performances of over 85 new creations. Hannigan has collaborated extensively with composers including Boulez, Zorn, Dutilleux, Ligeti, Stockhausen, Sciarrino, Barry, Dusapin, Dean, Benjamin and Abrahamsen.
The past two seasons presented both challenges and opportunities, and true to form, Barbara continued at her own speed of light, premiering a new live video production of La Voix Humaine in which she both sings and conducts, created in collaboration with video artist Denis Guéguin and premiered with l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, which she has now performed in London, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Rotterdam, Wroclaw and Munich. She gave the world premieres of John Zorn's "Split the Lark" for soprano and piano and “Star Catcher” for soprano, piano, upright bass and drums, as well as Zosha di Castri's "In the Half Light", with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Barbara performed across Europe with colleagues including Sir Simon Rattle and the LSO, Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony, Munich Philharmonic, festivals in Ludwigsburg and Aix en Provence, and celebrated her 50th birthday at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, conducting the Ludwig Orchestra in works of Haydn, Copland, and Gerald Barry, ending the celebration with two Kurt Weill songs arranged for Barbara by Bill Elliott.
Her future projects and performances in 2022/23 season include her conducting debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, Orchestre Chambre de Lausanne, a European tour with London Symphony Orchestra and a new multimedia project with pianists Katia and Marielle Labeque, and composers David Chalmin and Bryce Dessner, inspired by the cosmic compositions and contemplations of medieval polymath Hildegard von Bingen, designed and directed by Netia Jones/Lightmap.
