Born in Buenos Aires, composer, pianist and teacher, living in Portugal for 35 years, curious for everything that constitutes the 'today' - Daniel Schvetz is In Focus on MIC.PT in July.
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Document title Quatro Personagens Saídas de um Conto
Date of Composition· 2007
Catalogue Number 30
Instrumentation
Musical Category Chamber music (2-8 instruments)
Instrumentation (general) Ensemble
Premiere
Date 2007/Jul/21
Performer(s)
Camerata Senza Misura:
Nuno Pinto (clarinet), Evandra Gonçalves (violin), Filipe Quaresma (cello) and Elsa Silva (piano)
Organization/Event Póvoa do Varzim International Festival
Venue Concert Hall
Town Póvoa do Varzim
Country Portugal
Program Notes
My reading of the tale Mandarim by Eça de Queirós has inspired a large number of musical associations that leads me to pre-define this piece.
The title of the mentioned work and the character of its narrative made me think of the Miraculous Mandarin by Bartók, where the Hungarian composer insists on a small motif in the clarinet that appears throughout the piece. This motif, constructed over some intervals I like, has served as a pretext for the solo of the violin that introduces this piece.
The section that follows this solo is characterized by the presence of the entire quartet using undifferentiated gestures. The starting motif on the piano is a transformation of a recurrent contour on the clarinet in Messian’s Quartet for the End of Time: I wanted to use not only the same instrumentation, but also a common gesture.
Finally, the two last sections present, respectively, the supremacy of the cello and the clarinet, the rest of the ensemble serving as a harmonic carpet under the solo lines.
The title suggests the importance of ensemble in the narrative of the piece: all have space for different functions (soloists, accompanists, and commentator). In spite of there not being any intentional scenic element, Four characters taken from a tale functions as a theatrical play, where its narrative is based in conversations between the timbres of the instruments, their musical gestures and the cross-fade between being a soloist and in the second role of a spectator or support.
Hugo Ribeiro March ‘07
Prizes
Name of Award 2nd Póvoa do Varzim International Composition Award - Chamber Music