Quatuor Diotima Concert

This autumn, Lithuanian audiences will have a unique opportunity to hear one of the world’s leading string quartets – Quatuor Diotima. The French ensemble will perform on November 5 at the Lithuanian National Philharmonic, bringing an intriguing programme to Vilnius that will culminate in legendary minimalist “guru” Steve Reich’s masterpiece Different Trains.

Celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, Diotima is regarded as one of the most sought-after string quartets of our time. The ensemble regularly performs at the world’s most prestigious concert halls and festivals. Its anniversary season began with a residency at Paris’s renowned Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, followed by major performances at Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal, London’s Wigmore Hall, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie and Madrid’s Círculo de Bellas Artes.

Since its foundation, Diotima has maintained close relationships with many of the leading composers of our time. Alongside an extensive contemporary repertoire, the quartet has earned acclaim for its interpretations of works that have become classics, including music by Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert, Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, Anton Webern, Leoš Janáček, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel and Béla Bartók.

The quartet has also initiated premieres of works by some of the most distinguished contemporary composers, including Tristan Murail, Toshio Hosokawa, Alberto Posadas, Mauro Lanza, Gérard Pesson, Rebecca Saunders and Miroslav Srnka. Among its most significant artistic relationships are collaborations with modern-music pioneers Pierre Boulez and Helmut Lachenmann, both of whom regarded the quartet as an exceptional ensemble.

The Vilnius concert will feature one of American minimalist pioneer Steve Reich’s most famous and personal works, Different Trains.

As a child, Reich regularly travelled by train between New York and Los Angeles to visit his divorced parents. Many years later, he realised a haunting coincidence: at the same time, thousands of European Jews were being transported by train to Nazi concentration camps. Had he been born in Europe, he would have travelled on very “different trains.”

This realisation inspired the composition Different Trains. In this extraordinarily emotionally charged work, Reich uses authentic recordings of voices and train sounds to juxtapose two experiences unfolding at the same time yet worlds apart – the safety of his childhood in America and the tragedy of the Holocaust in Europe.

The two-part programme will also feature Brett Dean’s Epitaphs for String Quintet. For this work, the quartet will be joined by the Australian composer himself, who is also an accomplished violist.

Now based in Europe for several decades, Brett Dean’s music is performed by leading orchestras and conductors around the world, including Sir Simon Rattle, Vladimir Jurowski, Simone Young, Daniel Harding, Andris Nelsons, Marin Alsop and Sakari Oramo – although Dean himself is also an accomplished conductor.

In 2009, Brett Dean received the prestigious Grawemeyer Award for his Violin Concerto, one of the world’s most important prizes for composers. He has also served as Composer-in-Residence with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Wigmore Hall. His works have been recorded by leading classical music labels including BIS, Chandos, Warner Classics, ECM Records and ABC Classics.