After Al Asr, composed for the Arod Quartet, which eventually made its way to the greatest concert halls, Benjamin Attahir explores once again a genre that he has previously championed most admirably. It is now the turn of the Van Kuijk Quartet, commissioned by the Philharmonie de Paris (world premiere on 20 January) and the Berlin Konzerthaus (national premiere next season), to perform Al Dhikrâ, a musical testament to the young composer’s ever-intense poetic inspiration: 

By two occasions they thought they remembered each other – one to the other 

In the fury of these bodies intoxicated with the same air 

One single air - the breath of a twin mouth 

Which turns around 

Everything 

That which they thought they had forgotten 

Everything  

That which they had wanted to bury 

In the sudden movement of childhood 

 Sounds that smell of the wood of planks laid out in a cross 

 On a window - a door - a courtyard 

 Everything 

That which allowed itself to intrude  

Everything 

 This chill that never goes away 

 And which leaves in memory 

 The bite - raw 

 Of this skin 

 Shared 

Benjamin Attahir - Al Dhikrâ
for string quartet
World premiere: January 20, 2022 - Philharmonie de Paris
German premiere: January 20, 2023 - Konzerthaus Berlin
Quatuor Van Kuijk
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