In the framework of the Europa Project, a co-production between the Instituto Cervantes and the CNDM, this concert showcases a representative sample of the cultivation of the string quartet genre by Spanish composers in the 20th and 21st century.
The young Dalia Quartet, whose members belong to orchestras as prestigious as the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Lucern Festival Orchestra, the Bern Camerata and the Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra, will present us a discerning (and coherent) program including Josep Maria Guix’ (1967-)Three Haikus for String Quartet (2016), Robert Gerhard’s (1896-1970) second String Quartet’s (a very personal incursion into the legacy of Dodecaphonism), and Jesus Torres’ (1965) Clarinet Quintet, dedicated to Gonzalo de Olavide in a clear self-reflexive interpretation of tradition.
This concert illustrates the final historical stretch of the series and highlights the vitality of contemporary string quartet writing in Spain.
DALIA
Made up of four musicians, each of significant orchestral standing, the Dalia Quartet was born from a need to forge a space in parallel to their orchestral work, in which to study the chamber repertoire and explore the types of aesthetic languages that only the string quartet format, with its inherent intimacy and close collaborative demands, makes possible. Launching with performances in Barcelona and Cervera in 2014, the Dalia Quartet have played various prestigious engagements – of special note, three appearances at the Schubertiada Vilabertrán, and residencies in Cervera and at the Teatro de Sarriá in Barcelona.
LAURA RUIZ FERRERES
Faculty Professor of Clarinet at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst, Frankfurt am Main since 2011, Laura Ruiz Ferreres was previously First Clarinet in the Komische Oper Berlin under the baton of Kirill Petrenko, and Visiting Professor at the UdK-Universität der Künste in Berlin, from 2007 to 2010. Ruiz Ferreres is one of the most outstanding clarinetists of her generation, and one of the few to excel on both the French and German clarinet systems.