Repertoire
The 1750s through to the 1770s were exciting times and marked the dawn of the string quartet as a genre in its own right. We are continually captivated by the delight in experimentation revealed by many composers as they breathed life into this new formation of four string instruments without continuo. Formally, there are still myriad possibilities: the number of movements varies, as do the roles given to the individual instruments. Sometimes these conduct a polite conversation, sometimes a heated debate, although violins, viola, and cello are often on a surprisingly equal footing. The fugue is popular in Vienna, in Italy every second movement seems to transport you to an opera stage, while the Mannheim composers joyfully launch their famous skyrockets in their string quartets, too. Many names are hardly known today.
Our aim is to present not only string quartets by famous composers, such as Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, but also works by lesser-known masters that have now been forgotten. On our forays through archives and libraries, we repeatedly come across fascinating musical rarities that we regard as milestones in the evolution of this genre.
Juta Pranulytė Pantone 702c and some other tones
With the idea of building a musical bridge between the 18th and 21st centuries, Lithuanian-Austrian composer Juta Pranulytė created a new string quartet for us in 2024. The commission was supported by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts and Culture (BMKÖES) through a composition grant. Pantone 702c and some other tones was premiered on 4 August 2024 as part of the Donaufestwochen Strudengau at Dornach Castle.
Pantone 702c and some other tones is a palette of harmonies, a gallery of tone colours. Every harmony is alive - it vibrates. Two sounds react to each other and, if they do not harmonise perfectly, lead to inner vibrations. The inner life of the sound changes each time, the tones reveal themselves in different shades. The composer invites the audience to listen to the palette of sounds - be it a single pitch or an intense texture. The work is based on the exact circle of fifths, which is slightly larger than our tempered fifths. Its circle does not close. Each step (inversion) creates new frequency relationships and thus inner rhythmic vibrations. Every harmony is a colour.
Juta Pranulytė (*1993) is a freelance composer and curator of new music. She studied composition at the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the University of Melbourne, as well as art history and theory at the Vilnius Academy of the Arts. Previous works have been premiered by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice, Apartment House and the choir Les Métaboles at venues such as the Deutsche Oper Berlin (as winner of the NEUE SZENEN VI composition competition) and Wigmore Hall in London. Key artist residencies and academies include the ‘Young Women Opera Makers’ residency at the Académie du Festival d'Aix, the Deutsche Bank Foundation's Akademie Musiktheater Heute (AMH), Hållnäs Konstkoloni (Sweden) and ‘Paroles et musique’ at the Opéra Orchestre National Montpellier.