Diotima Quartet (FR) (3:3)

A good place to start...

...is Brahms' second string quartet. If you are a new traveller in the world of classical music, join us here in a moving and emotional piece of music. The work is dedicated to one of Brahms' friends, whose motto was frei, aber einsam, meaning "free but lonely". Brahms changed it to frei, aber froh, meaning "free but happy". Both mottos are included in the string quartet with the notes F, A, E and F, A, F, and the frei, aber froh motif is included again in his third symphony from 1883; joy thus ultimately overcame loneliness – Brahms has "spoken"! And that is romanticism with a vengeance.

Listening to music

When Finnish Kaija Saariaho received the Léonie Sonning Music Prize in 2011, the motivation stated, among other things, that Saariaho creates works of eminent originality, great beauty and intense communicative power. Her music may seem a little difficult to access at first, but her own approach to listening can help open doors to listening experiences: She believes that one should free oneself from one's expectations of how music should sound; not try to "understand it", but instead surrender to the music in order to open oneself to the impressions and moods that it creates in one.

A touch of blues from Austria: Out of the bluest blue

Is the latest result of the library's collaboration with the Diotima Quartet. Thomas Larcher's quartet has been commissioned by the Black Diamond, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Philharmonie de Paris and Wigmore Hall. It all starts with a big C major sound – and then gradually becomes more and more "blue", perhaps not like a "jazzy" blues, but further and further away from the pure C major sound – and so, it is no coincidence that there are references to a "blues".

A grumbler from the Romantic period meets Hans Christian Andersen

But more about Johannes Brahms. He was not a reticent person, he shared both his thoughts and his talents. Brahms' meeting with the Copenhagen cultural life – in the very cold wake of the Danes having to cede the land of Southern Jutland to the Germans – went awry, to say the least. Among those he came across with his outspoken manner was our own H.C. Andersen, who immortalised the composer's impudence in his diary. Brahms had been so bold as to say that Thorvaldsen's Museum would have been better located in Berlin! The Danes responded to this remark with a pasquinade on the front page of the daily newspaper Telegrafen (1868), which reads, among other things: We honoured his fingers, we honoured his spirit, we cheered, pulled on the Glazed, he mocked our country in favour of Berlin, we tolerated him, pious, blasé. Then he was put in his place!

Memories

And more about Kaija Saariaho, who is no longer here in the physical sense. Her Terra memoria is dedicated to all those who have passed away. The work is composed so that it takes the form of remembering a deceased person. The deceased is unchangeable, but our memories of them change throughout life, some are lost, some become blurred, while some remain crystal clear. Likewise, Terra memoria is written so that elements of the music are constantly changing and passing away, while individual elements persist until the end. The work is indeed dedicated to the deceased, but it is not least a work for all of us who remember those we have lost.

Participants

The Diotima Quartet:
Yun-Peng Zhao, violin
Leo Marillier, violin
Franck Chevalier, viola
Alexis Descharmes, cello