Quatuor Diotima

In 1996, four young graduates of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris with similar tastes and affinities decided to stick together and form a quartet called Diotima. Diotima is an allegory of German Romanticism – the name given by Friederich Hölderlin to the love of his life in his novel Hyperion – and the standard for contemporary music held aloft by Luigi Nono in Fragmente-Stille, an Diotima. They have since set a high benchmark for contemporary music and have inspired collaborations with many composers. This season, the quartet are taking up a residency on avenue Montaigne to perform contemporary chamber music here once again. Our first rendez-vous this Sunday lays down a marker with Ravel’s String Quartet (1902) with its distinctive highly developed sonorities, unexpected harmonisations on the melodic line, and intertwined cyclical themes and motifs. This sets the tone for the future. Twenty-five years later, the Polish composer Szymanowski harked back to it and blended in folk themes from his homeland. This first performance of the season will draw to a close with the work Terra Memoria by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho. This rich panorama of the 20th and early 21st century will continue in February and June of next year. 

Production Théâtre des Champs-Élysées