For seasons 2012-2013 and 2013-2014

Revised Boulez Livre pour quatuor addition to
recreation of historic Beethoven/Schoenberg 1937 Royce Hall UCLA concerts

Beethoven/Boulez/Schoenberg - A four-concert series

Seventy-five years after the historical Beethoven/Schoenberg concerts by the Kolisch Quartett at UCLA’s Royce Hall (under patronage of Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge), the Diotima Quartet will recreate the four-concert series with the addition of a newly completely revised version of Livre pour quatuor by Pierre Boulez. In April 2011, Mr. Boulez will begin working closely with Diotima during the revision process. He will personally determine the order of the works across the four recitals deciding on the most suitable juxtapositions for the 6 parts of his ‘Livre’ with the pairings of the Beethoven and Schoenberg quartets – which will be the same selection as for the Royce Hall series where Schoenberg’s Fourth Quartet, commissioned by Sprague Coolidge, concluded the final concert.

This is a provisional program as Pierre Boulez will decide on the best juxtapositions of his Livre pour quatuor after the revision. This will be performed at the THÉÂTRE DES BOUFFES DU NORD, PARIS, October-November 2012.

Programme 1:
Beethoven No.12 in E-flat major Op.127 / 38-39’
Boulez Livre pour quatuor, parts?* (1948-49, revised 2011-12) / 12-13’?
i n t e r v a l
Schoenberg No.1 in D minor Op.7 (1904-05) / c.46’

Programme 2:
Beethoven No.13 in B-flat major Op. 130 with Grosse Fuge Op.133 / 48-49’
i n t e r v a l
Boulez Livre pour quatuor, parts?* (1948-49, revised 2011-12) / 12-13’?
Schoenberg No.2 in F-sharp minor Op.10 with soprano (1907-08) / 30-31’

Programme 3:
Beethoven No.14 in C-sharp minor Op.131 / 39-40’
i n t e r v a l
Boulez Livre pour quatuor, parts?* (1948-49, revised 2011-12) / c.14-15’?
Schoenberg No.3 Op.30 (1927) / c.30’

Programme 4:
Beethoven No.15 in A minor Op.132 / c.45’
i n t e r v a l
Boulez Livre pour quatuor, parts?* (1948-49, revised 2011-12) / c.14-15’?
Schoenberg No.4 Op.37 (1936) / c.32’

*Livre pour quatuor comprises six sections as follows:
I a & b / II / III a, b & c / IV / V / VI

The duration of the original version, excluding part IV, is 44-45 minutes.
Total duration of the complete revised version currently unknown.

Yun-Peng Zhao, violin 1 & 2
Vanessa Szigeti, violin 1 & 2
Franck Chevalier, viola
Pierre Morlet, violoncello

“...plays with the energy and passion of a newly minted ensemble.” – New York Times

QUATUOR DIOTIMA was awarded first prize at the FNAPEC Competition, Paris in 1999, and the Contemporary Music Prize at the London String Quartet Competition in 2000, in which year they began a two-year residency at the Centre Européen de Musique de Chambre, Fontainebleau.

From the outset Diotima have performed internationally and has appeared at many of the major concert venues and music festivals including , Opera Bastille, Berlin Philharmonie, Konzerthaus Berlin, Festival ECLAT Stuttgart, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Villa Medici Rome, Gulbenkian Foundation Lisbon, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Stockholm New Music, Sydney and the Athens Festival and the Takefu Festival in Japan,. Concert tours have taken them to Japan, USA, Central and South America, China and Korea. Their 2010 U.S. tour included a New York debut at the Frick Collection.

Their repertoire ranges from Haydn to the composers of our time, with particular focus on the Classical period, French Romanticism, the early Twentieth Century, and a selection of major works from the last 50 years. An equally significant part of their activity is the performance and dissemination of newly commissioned works.

Diotima’s discography includes works by Lachenmann and Nono (‘Diapason d’or de l’année’ – Young Talents prize), Janacek (played from new critical editions, ‘Diapason d’or’), Lucien Durosoir, Schoenberg’s concerto for quartet and orchestra, a quartet cycle by Alberto Posadas (Diapason d’or, November 09), quartets by George Onslow (Diapason ‘CD of the month’, January 2010), Thomas Larcher’s Madhares, and portraits of Toshio Hosokawa, Dieter Schnebel and Chaya Czernowin. Their latest CD comprises works for voice and string quartet by Schoenberg, Berg and Webern, with Sandrine Piau and Marie-Nicole Lemieux.

Highlights of the 2011/12 season include appearances at the Musikfest Bremen, Musica Strasbourg, Auditorium du Louvre, Milano Musica, Wigmore Hall, Auditorio Nacional Madrid, HCMF Huddersfield, Onassis Cultural Centre Athens, Cité de la Musique Paris, Ultraschall Festival Berlin, Konzerthaus Wien, Ars Musroica Brussels, Opéra de Lille, Palazzetto Bru Zane Venice, Musikfest Stuttgart and Kunstfest Weimar. In the autumn of 2012 Diotima will begin residencies at Fondation Royaumont and Wissenschaftskolleg Berlin, and present a 4-concert series at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord Paris.

Website: quatuordiotima.fr

“...plays with the energy and passion of a newly minted ensemble… captured the composer’s continual shifts between ecstasy and anguish with a sound that embraced reverie and tumult, lushness and abrasiveness, melodic richness and stark angularity [in Janacek]… tightly unified account of the Ravel Quartet… driven and dazzling…haunting juxtaposition of a dark-hued theme and its tremolando accompaniment…muted passages played with a vibratoless, almost organlike tone...”

—Allan Kozinn, New York Times

“Good quartets are swarming in France…but the Diotima Quartet is probably one of the best and the most promising”

—Renaud Machard, Le Monde

“The Ravel is a gorgeous work…and this (performance) was so successful because it did not wallow in the swaths of color, remaining crystalline, finely etched, and rhythmically active.”

—IONARTS of Washington Post

DIAPASON D'OR  and DISC OF THE MONTH:

George Onslow [1783-1853] Quartets Opp.54, 55 & 56 (Naïve CD: V5200)

“This is a nice surprise reserved for us by Diotima: first Nono, Lachenmann, then Janacek and Posadas, and now the Romantics. ... Their rigorous approach and fluid elegance are matched by a precise understanding of the formal structures. ... Instrumentally a complete success: strong contrasts, rich palette and transparent dialogue. ... a young ensemble who must in future be taken seriously in all repertoires.”

—Nicolas Southon, Diapason, January 2010

DIAPASON D'OR:

Alberto Posadas Liturgia Fractal

“Diotima, who gain in maturity with each defining encounter (Lachenmann, Ferneyhough) are astounding: individual virtuosity ..., an ensemble of magnificent homogeneity ..., the detail is precise, the sound luxuriant ..., all signalling a masterly interpretation.”

—Pierre Rigaudière, Diapason, November 2009

Biennale Quatuors à Cordes, Cité de la Musique Paris:

A review excerpt of the Biennial of the string quartet at the Cite de la Musique in Paris (concerts by the  Arditti, Borodine, Emerson, Tokyo and Hagan, Ysaye, Mosaiques, Prazak, Diotima):

“One day later, the Quatuor Diotima had the opportunity to perform a complete programme and confirmed how they bring new life to the sting quartet. Of the seven presentations of Schubert that we heard during this Biennale, the Quartet No.2 played by Diotima made the strongest impression: a dense sonority, but with the spirit of chamber music maintained; imagination and drama throughout; at last Schubert brought to us as if he were in the prime of life.”

—ResMusica.com

Radio France Bartok Quartet no. 6:

“Very impressive, the Diotima Quartet not only reaches a superb technical level with well defined voices, but at the same time offers resolutely expressive and dramatic playing, supple and unpredictable – fearless in communicating the contrast between nobility and desolation in the successive Mestos on one hand and the grotesque approaching terror in the central episodes (Marcia, Burletta), on the other.”

—Simon Corley, Le Figaro

Festival Musica in Strasbourg:

On Diotima Quartet's performance of Liturgia Fractal, a cycle of 5 quartets by Alberto Posadas:

“This first complete performance of the work was, in my opinion, the major event at Musica 2008and one of the summits of contemporary chamber music… With their accuracy and beauty of sound, and because they concentrate on only a few big projects per season, Diotima do complete justice to this intimidating masterpiece.”

—Harry Halbreich, Crescendo (Belgium)

“Liturgia Fractal, says the composer, is a liturgy of nature. The listener was treated on the occasion to a performance of hypervirtuosity of the Diotima Quartet – playing with a cohesion and homogeneity beyond perfection : they left the audience totally flabbergasted.”

—Marc Munch, Derniere Nouvelle ’Alace

Eclat Festival, Stuttgart:

“(Jonathan Harvey’s fourth quartet and Schnebel’s first quartet) “comprised the closing concert of the Eclat Festival of New Music in Stuttgart – excellently played by Quatuor Diotima. The French ensemble, equally familiar with tradition as well as cutting edge, convinced through commanding precision, colorful profusion and lucid differentiation. In addition, there was an intensity of aural qualities that preserved the aura of finest quartet playing all the way into Harvey’s surround sounds.”

—Martin Mezger, Esslinger Zeitung

(Schnebel’s quartet) “With extrovert brilliance, Quatuor Diotima turned it into a gripping journey.”

—Otto Paul Burkhardt, Sudwestpresse

“Quatuor Diotima…mastered these enormous tasks with extraordinary stamina and musicianship.”

—Dieter Lohr, Schwabische Zeitung

Janacek String Quartets:

“Playing with perfect cohesion, Diotima, superbly expert painters of these interior worlds, trace each one of Janacek’s testament-journeys, charged as they are with personal references of memories…an irresistible performance.”

—Ernst van Bek, ClassiqueNews.co

Concerts Mi-Temps Classic, Châteauroux:

“The Diotima quartet meets Janacek :  a remarkable young French ensemble already well known for its interpretations 20th century music (Viennese School, Ligeti, Nono, Lachenmann). Their interpretation of the First Quartet, passionate but also breathing a clam internal balance, underlines the extreme position taken by Janacek in comparison with the music of his time. In the Second Quartet, equally dense and fiery, Quatuor Diotima gives full expression to the gradual metamorphosis of the thematic and rhythmic ideas. The serious, lyrical, consistent approach, the radiance of the sound and the passion shown throughout, are a revelation.”

—Patrick Szersnovicz, Le Monde de la Musique

Lucien Durosoir String Quartets:

“The Diotima Quartet, who take their name from a piece by Luigi Nono (Fragmente-Stille, an Diotima), specialize particularly in contemporary music. It is probably this that lies behind their incisive rhythmic precision, while their remarkable care over tonal quality is more than simply self-indulgence. What results is an unexpected and major revelation.”

—Jacques Bonnaure, Classica-Repertoire

Stanford University, USA:

“If ticket sales matched technical ability and emotional impact, they would have been playing at Herbst to a sold-out hall. […] the program was united by the extreme difficulties the pieces present to any ensemble and the confident flair with which the Quatuor Diotima overcame them. With luck, there will be more opportunities in the future to hear such groups in the Bay area.”

—Aaron Einbond, San Francisco Classical Voice

Ravel String Quartet, first movement (excerpt)

Onslow No. 28, op. 54, first movement (excerpt)

Durosoir Quartet No. 1, second movement (excerpt)

Posadas Liturgia fractal, number 1 (excerpt)

Ferneyhough Quartet No. 2 (excerpt)