Brooklyn Rider: The 4 Elements

Colin Jacobsen A Short While to Be Here…[Irish Premiere]
Akshaya Tucker Hollow Flame [Irish Premiere]
Andreia Pinto-Correia Aere senza stelle [Irish Premiere ]
Dutilleux String Quartet Ainsi la nuit
Shostakovich String Quartet No. 8 
Golijov Tenebrae

A must-see, must-hear appearance by America’s most exciting string quartet, Brooklyn Rider, with a deep dive into the four elements – Earth, Air, Fire and Water. Colin Jacobsen’s A Short While to Be Here… finds earthiness in frontier songs, Dutilleux’s Ainsi la nuit seemingly filled by popping bubbles of air, Pinto-Correia’s Aere senza stelle moving from air to the fire that flares in Akshaya Tucker’s Hollow Flame and Shostakovich’s Eighth String Quartet. Golijov says his Tenebrae ‘sounds like an orbiting spaceship that never touches ground’.

Did you know?

Brooklyn Rider will celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2025.

Dutilleux studied music by Beethoven, Bartók and Webern in preparation for writing Ainsi la nuit. 

Shostakovich’s Eighth String Quartet was inspired by a visit to Dresden, the German city left devastated after being bombed by the Allies.

Golijov’s Tenebrae was prompted by an outbreak of violence in Israel and a visit to the New York Planetarium.

Listen out for…

Dutilleux’s opening, six-note chord and how everything that follows is built from it.

Similarly, the four-note motif that will recur in different guises throughout Shostakovich’s Eighth Quartet, intertwined with the ‘Dies Irae’ in the final movement.

How the serene outer movements of Golijov’s Tenebrae mirror his five-year-old son’s awe at the beauty and vastness of the cosmos, its turbulent, keening inner section a reflection on violence in the Middle East.

Presented by NCH