Photo : Olivier Roller 

On 16 February, Quatuor Diotima will premiere Marc Monnet’s 9ème Quatuor in the dual setting of its residence at Radio France and the new edition of the Festival Présences.

Adept at opposing views, beginning with those he administers to his own style, Marc Monnet states that in this work he sought "to find something on the order of the non-expressive, even if that is illusory because non-expressiveness is another form of expressiveness". Still, as exhilarating as this artist is, he first and foremost knows the rules of the game: "... if he wants to stimulate the ear, the composer must continuously surprise; he must rouse the brain of the listener and always question the composition of the music, knowing why and at which moment the listener may experience enjoyment."

We can be certain that, in tune with the challenge of the Festival Présences from the time of its founding by Claude Samuel, this world premiere will provide the audience members at the Auditorium de la Maison de la Radio with a chance to question their "understanding of what they usually hear". And the artist assures us: "When I see how much time it takes for the knowledge required to decide what will be or not be when writing a score, I can readily imagine that it would not be easy for a music lover to quickly make his way and that he or she would probably respond with reference to the familiar collective conditioning. In the 9ème Quatuor, I have also torn up this conventional mode somewhat."

Quatuor Diotima 

16 February 2019, Maison de la Radio, Auditorium de Radio France (Festival Présences 2019)