Quatuor Alfama

STRING QUARTET

With voice

with Albane Carrère, mezzo-soprano

STILL SCHUBERT

CD Schubert/Fafchamps

Programme: 60'.

F. SCHUBERT
String Quartet No. 14 in D minor "Death and the Maiden", D. 810

J. FAFCHAMPS
Lust auf Sehnsucht (mit Schubert Wandern) for string quartet and voice

With Albane Carrère, mezzo-soprano

To Death and the Maiden, a masterpiece of the Romantic repertoire for string quartet, this disc combines the gentle melancholy that permeates Schubert's lieder, which Jean-Luc Fafchamps has arranged and reappropriated for himself: here is an atypical cycle of melodies by the Viennese master gradually contaminated by the sounds of the Belgian composer! Harmonic modifications to twentieth-century instrumental techniques give rise to a conversation with Franz Schubert, a desire for melancholy and tender pain. The Alfama Quartet opens itself to encounters by welcoming the pure and moving voice of Albane Carrère.

LA NUIT DANS TOUS SES ÉTATS

O. RESPIGHI
Il Tramonto, P. 101

G. PUCCINI
Crisantemi

J. FAFCHAMPS
Lust auf Sehnsucht (mit Schubert Wandern) for string quartet and voice

With Albane Carrère, mezzo-soprano

The night with its dreams and insomnia, the night with the stars and the moon. The nocturnal hours full of emotions.

To gradually immerse the audience in the nocturnal atmosphere, we begin the concert with Il Tramonto ('The sunset'). This is a work for mezzo voice and string quartet, composed by Respighi in 1914 on a poem by Shelley. The warm, very Italian lyricism, delicately tinged with chromaticism, reminiscent of Rimsky-Korsakov but also of French music, contributes to the distinctive identity of this somewhat old-fashioned but very spontaneous and charming score.

We then plunge the audience into a January night in 1890 filled with gripping emotions. It was during this night that the young Puccini wrote 'Crisantemi', a funeral adagio, following the announcement of the death of Amédée of Savoy, Duke of Aosta, second son of King Victor Emmanuel II.

Langourously dramatic, this short score (6 minutes), often performed by a string orchestra, serves as a funeral service and is frequently used in the media at funerals of worldly figures.

Waldesnacht', 'An den Mond', 'Nachtstück', 'Abendstern' and 'Nacht und Träume'. These are just some of the titles of poems set to music by Franz Schubert. Schubert wrote these night melodies like no other Romantic composer and appeals to the listener's imagination. After two Italian gems, you will discover a new cycle of lieder, inspired by Schubert, composed by the Belgian composer Jean-Luc Fafchamps at the request of the Alfama Quartet. Schubert's music sometimes goes almost unnoticed, but it slips into the language of our time quite naturally.