Photo : Quartet Les Dissonances by © Benoît Linero  

On 9 May, the Quartet of the orchestra Les Dissonances will perform Eric Montalbetti’s first string quartet (with opus number) at the Musicales de Colmar, France.

Harmonieuses Dissonances [Harmonious Dissonances], is not only, according to the composer, “a play on words in reference to the work’s first performers, but also the very crux of the work: using various contrasting motifs with different tempi, seemingly dissonant and divergent at first, in order to build a balanced structure and a new sense of harmony through gradual exposition and development of the motifs. A way of symbolising the search for meaning that burns within us all.”

Eric Montalbetti’s extensive and flexible musical language in Harmonieuses Dissonances, blending modal writing and avant-garde techniques including serial and spectral composition, has already won over audiences in its symphonic form. The work is now premiered in its long-awaited form for “four distinct yet strongly linked personalities: four stringed instruments, beautifully united, each in tune with the next, going “on a journey” together.” A worthy challenge for the talented musicians of the Dissonances ensemble, perfectly at ease with the Classical, Romantic and Contemporary repertoires.

World premierere on May 9, 2019, Théâtre Municipal (Festival Les Musicales de Colmar)