QUARTET GERHARD

Lluís Castán, violin | Judit Bardolet, violin | Miquel Jordà, viola | Jesús Miralles, cello

PROGRAMME

D. Shostakovich: String Quartet no. 1 in C major, Op. 49 / String Quartet no. 6 in G major, Op. 101 / String Quartet no. 9 in E flat major, Op. 117

From his first string quartet, written in 1938, until his last, the fifteenth, composed in 1974, one year before his death, Dmitri Shostakovich authored one of the most extensive and significant series of string quartets of the 20th century. They are the true witness of a life that the composer was unable to express in his symphonies, which he was constrained to write in line with the political directives of the Soviet Union. It was in the quartets that Shostakovich was able to give free rein to his ideas, writing music full of contrasts, where we find joy and anguish, tenderness and violence, folk melodies and modernism. His whole life is condensed in these 15 quartets, all of which will be played by the Quartet Gerhard at the Torroella Festival over a 3-year period until 2024.

A co-production by the Torroella Festival and the San Sebastián Musical Fortnight