Sonar Quartett Lunik1 (15’) (Irish Premiere)
Naomi Pinnock (*1979), I am, I am (2019; 16’) for soprano and string quartet (Irish Premiere)
Heinz Holliger (*1939), Increschantüm (2014; 25’) for soprano and string quartet (Irish Premiere)

Lunik1 is one of a series of works composed by the Sonar Quartett which has emerged from their distinctive practice of improvisational collaboration: these are works that are created by the four players together, that focus on expectation, on what it is to be expectant. An expectation that also refers to what has already been played. When one has every sound in mind, the sounds can start to connect. To make a proposition right now, you have to know what might come next, as if you were collecting berries, and you also need to know where you’ve been running long before. A forest, an interplay, a single cosmos; don’t trigger a sound without everything faltering. Axis: North West East South – divergence and back to each other.

I am, I am was commissioned by Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and premiered there by Juliet Fraser and Sonar Quartett on 15 November 2019. In two movements, the piece sets an extract of Tentsmuir VII by Rachael Boast.

Increschantüm, for soprano and string quartet, sets six poems in Romansh by the Swiss writer Luisa Fomas (1930-1974) that explore the themes of longing, homesickness, death, grief and hope. It was commissioned by the Lucerne Festival and premiered there in 2014 by soprano Anu Komsi and the Zehetmair Quartett.

Performers:

Sonar Quartett
Juliet Fraser

Length: 60’