Requested by the Musée du Louvre to write a piece to pay tribute to the Spanish painter Velásquez, in the context of the Grand Palais exhibition which is dedicated to him, Hèctor Parra chose to be inspired by the painting La Légende d’Arachné - Las Hilanderas (Les Fileuses), in order to write a third string quartet for Quatuor Tana.

The piece will be premiered on the 17th April 2015 at the Auditorium of Musée du Louvre, before being performed at Wigmore Hall (UK) for the British premiere, then at Festival Nits de Clàssica in Girona (Spain).

The composer decided to work on the “agitation of the instrumental material” which the painting inspired him to do; a metaphor of life and the ephemeral question of existence.

In this conversation with two members of the quartet, Jeanne and Antoine Maisonhaute, Hèctor Parra describes the stakes of this new compositional adventure.