The Molinari Quartet Closes Its Season With 'The Quartet According To Berio'

Faithful to its tradition of performing complete cycles of string quartets by one composer, the Molinari Quartet closes its season with a major event entitled «The Quartet According to Berio» in its series Twentieth and Beyond on Friday May 19th.

The Italian composer Luciano Berio (1925-2003) has left a substantial work that can be categorised as unclassifiable. At times serial, at times post-webernian and sometimes even electronic, his music is influenced by the modernity of the Darmstadt School. His musical explorations have led him to finish Puccini's opera Turandot and even to write « Rendering » a work based on the sketches from Schubert's unifinished 10th symphony.

As for his string quartets, they explores all the possibilities of the string quartet writing. Berio also creates a unique language especially with his later quartets, Notturno and Glosse that are at times even contemplative.

« This is a very rich string quartet cycle and the composer explores all the different aspects of string quartet writing of the 20th century. The music is magnetic and we are very enthusiastic about sharing these incredible quartets with our public » says Olga Ranzenhofer, violinist and artistic director of the Molinari Quartet.

The Molinari Quartet invites Jean Portugais, university professor, music-lover and former music commentator for Radio-Canada, to give a pre-concert free conference in the concert hall of the Conservatory at 6:30 PM on May 19. The 40 minute conference will give biographical and musicological information on the very innovative and original composer that is Luciano Berio.

The Quartet According to Berio

The complete string quartet cycle by Luciano Berio (1925-2003)

• Study (1952)
• Quartetto (1955)
• Sincronie (1964)
• Notturno (1993)
• Glosse (1996)

Dialogue on the Plateau

The concert will be preceded by the Dialogue on the Plateau series, a free workshop activity at the Maison de la culture Plateau-Mont-Royal (465, Mont-Royal East), on Sunday, May 14 at 2 PM. You will hear analysis, discussions and musical excerpts of the works to be played at the May 19 concert.

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