Meïmoun - Tsimtsoum in Aix
François Meïmoun is an unclassifiable character: musicologist, arranger and, of course, composer. As his current movements show, the latter component is playing an increasingly large role on his journey. Chamber music has an important place, alongside a quartet with piano and a string quintet; his committed approach to the string quartet genre can be read within. Meïmoun’s aesthetic offers a subtle combination of timbral sophistication and formal intelligence, which are components that can also be found in his Viola Concerto. We are also looking forward to hearing his piece for piano four hands – an instrument Meïmoun is very familiar with as he plays himself.
About his quintet "Tsimtsoum"
The string quartet genre adapted itself to all languages from Haydn to today, welcomed every playstyle, every instrumental innovation. The story of the Quintet is more scattered even though it is prestigious. The genre is rare among modern catalogues. Is it the lyricism which goes with works from this repertoire that takes it away from the “mainstream” of the 20th century? Was the genre less favorable to abstraction and research? The new perspectives of composition allow resorting again to this genre. The string quintet Tsimtsoum takes its impetus from the Kabbale. Far from the idea of putting in music the indecipherable esotericism of ancient texts even though the reading of mystical texts presided over and triggered the composition of this work. This quintet is a work of shadows and lights. Saying tacitly, singing, screaming or suggesting far away the shades of a world which gets created while expanding.
Watch the video: interview with Antoine Pecqueur
World premiere on 20 July 2016
Commissioned by the Festival d'Aix en Provence (France)
Quatuor Tana and Garth Knox viola
information about the concert