Quatuor Hermès

"The movements of this work give me the impression of having been written in three of the different languages spoken by the Jewish people throughout our history. In a way, this reflects the epic nature of the composition. I hear the prelude and the first movement, the oldest, in Aramaic; the second movement is in Yiddish, the rich and fragile language of a long exile; the third movement and the postlude are in sacred Hebrew.

The prelude and first movement simultaneously explore two prayers in different ways: the quartet plays the first part of the central prayer of the High Holidays, “We will proclaim the power of the holiness of this day...”, while the clarinet dreams of motifs from “Our Father, our King”. The second movement is based on ‘The Old Klezmer Band’, a traditional dance melody, here surrounded by contrasting manifestations of its own aura.

The third movement was written before all the others. It is an instrumental version of K'vakarat, a work I wrote a few years ago. (...) This movement, together with the postlude, brings to a close the prayer left unfinished in the first movement: ‘...You pass by and inscribe, count and visit every living soul, setting the measure of every creature's life and decreeing its destiny.’ "

- Osvaldo Golijov

BRAHMS
Quintet for clarinet and strings in B minor, Op. 115

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GOLIJOV
The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind