In Memoriam: For Those Who Fall In Times Of War with the Brodsky Quartet
The centre piece of this programme is Paul Barker’s intensely moving work In Memoriam: For Those Who Fall In Times Of War, commissioned in 2004 by the Brodsky Quartet, the Spanish clarinettist Joan Enric Lluna and Arts Council England. Scored for quartet and clarinet, the work was inspired by the demise one by one of three members of the Sarajevo String Quartet during the war in Bosnia. It is brought to life here in a variety of settings, with specially designed screens placed either side of the stage which the musicians move around whilst performing from memory.
The theatrical presentation includes works by Stravinsky, Osvaldo Golijov, Samuel Beckett and Nigel Osborne.
Stravinsky Three Pieces for String Quartet (1914)
Stravinsky Three Pieces for Clarinet Solo
Osvaldo Golijov Clarinet Quintet (excerpt)
Samuel Beckett Quad (a theatre piece in which 4 people silently move monotonously and synchronously within a defined space)
Nigel Osborne Ode (a piece written for the surviving cellist of the Sarajevo Quartet)
Paul Barker In Memoriam: For Those Who Fall In Times Of War
I Lachrymae
II Soliloquy: Song of the Anchorite
III Chorale: The Soft Cathedral
IV Exeunt Omnes
The semi-theatrical presentation prefaces In Memoriam with concert performances of the following works.
Stravinsky Three Pieces for String Quartet (1914)
Stravinsky Three Pieces for Clarinet Solo
Shostakovich Quartet No. 11 in F minor, Op. 122
Isidora Zebeljan Song of a traveler at night
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Paul Barker In Memoriam: For Those Who Fall In Times Of War
The UK premiere of In Memoriam: For Those Who Fall In Times Of War was given in November 2004 in Oxford; further performances have taken place in London, Mexico and Spain.
