Colasanti: String Quartets Quartetto Nous

• Silvia Colasanti (b. 1975):
• 1 Due destini 09:55
• 2 Aria 09:40
• 3 Di tumulti e d'ombre studio per Faust 14:18
• Tre notti:
• 4 Tre notti: I. Prima note 04:23
• 5 Tre notti: II. Seconda note 06:03
• 6 Tre notti: III. Terza note 05:05
• Total Runtime 49:24

Info for Colasanti: String Quartets

One of today’s leading Italian string quartets in the powerfully original music of a compatriot. Born in 1975, Silvia Colasanti has an extensive catalogue of works to her credit in all the major classical genres, but her style is principally characterised by its attention to drama, whether experienced on or off the lyric stage. In 2019 the premiere of her Proserpine opera was staged to open the prestigious Spoleto Festival. ‘The score is like elegant lace,’ reported Classical Music Daily, ‘with very skilful orchestration and well-balanced vocal writing. It is not an experimental score but a good piece of music where the main themes are intertwined and can be easily played by the orchestra as well as recognized by the listeners.’ These qualities may also be appreciated in Colasanti’s work for string quartet. The expressive markings for Due destini, starting Agitato and Immobile, reveal the work’s destination of travel towards two quite different places, creating an expressive tension which the string quartet is uniquely well placed to sustain. Aria does not imitate vocal writing but rather draws on the Italian meaning of the word, ‘airs’, with music that breathes and shudders and vanishes on the wind. Di tumulti e onde, dedicated to the Quartetto di Cremona, is subtitled Studio per Faust, and its predominance of darkness over light and tumult over calm is a characterstic feature of Colasanti’s language. Finally there is a trio of pieces that develops the themes of a piece she wrote for string quartet and percussion to accompany a text written by Patrizia Cavalli. The theme is that of a woman waking and dreaming, not unlike the lonely figure in Schoenberg’s Erwartung, and now transformed by Tre Notti into music of sudden fears and restless hopes. The Quartetto Noûs has won acclaim in Italy and abroad for the warmth of its sound and the intelligence of its interpretations. In the UK they have found a home from home at the Conway Hall’s Sunday evening concerts, where they have given ‘forthright and well-proportioned’ Haydn, ‘strong and symphonic conviction’ to Brahms and ‘decisive and unanimous’ Bartók performances (all quoted from reviews in The Strad). This is one of the quartet’s first international album releases.

Quatuor Noûs

Quartetto Noûs
Noûs (nùs) is an Greek word whose meaning is ‘mind’, and thence ‘rationality’, but also ‘inspiration’ and ‘creativity’.

Quartetto Noûs, formed in 2011, has established itself in a short time as one of the most interesting chamber music ensemble of its generation.

Its immersive performances are the result of a professional training where the Italian tradition and the most influencial European schools are combined.

The quartet studied with the Quartetto di Cremona at the Accademia Walter Stauffer in Cremona, at the Basel Musik Akademie with Rainer Schmidt (Hagen Quartet), at the Escuela Superior de Música ‘Reina Sofia’ in Madrid and at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena with Günter Pichler (Alban Berg Quartet) and at the Lübeck Musikhochschule with Heime Müller (Artemis Quartet).

In 2014 Quartetto Noûs was selected to take part in the project ‘Le Dimore del Quartetto’ thanks to which it won a scholarship. During the same year it was awarded another important scholarship offered by the Foundatión Albeniz of Madrid.

In 2015 the quartet was awarded the Piero Farulli Prize, given to the best emerging chamber music group in the current year, as part of the XXXIV Franco Abbiati Award, the most prestigious Italian music critics award.

It received from La Fenice Theatre, Venice, the Arthur Rubinstein – Una Vita nella Musica 2015 Award …for establishing itself in a mere few years as one of the most promising Italian chamber music groups and for displaying, early in its career, its maturity of approach to the great string quartet literature; for seeking a reasoned and lasting interpretation of the masterpieces of the Classical-Romantic period and of the twentieth century, together with a determined and ongoing exploration of the contemporary music language.

The versatility and the interpretative originality of the ensemble appear in the quartet’s whole repertoire and the attention to the new compositional languages drive it to experiment with innovative concert formats like performing by heart in complete darkness.

It has worked with several contemporary composers and took part in many cross-cutting projects with renowned theatre and dance companies.

It collaborated with renowned artists like Tommaso Lonquich, Andrea Lucchesini, Alain Meunier, Giampaolo Bandini, Giovanni Scaglione, Sonig Tchakerian, Bruno Canino, Boris Petrushansky

Quartetto Noûs has performed for important Italian concert seasons such as Società del Quartetto in Milan, Unione Musicale in Turin, Amici della Musica in Florence, Bologna Festival and Musica Insieme in Bologna, Società del Quartetto in Bergamo, Società Veneziana dei Concerti, Associazione Chamber Music in Trieste, Associazione Musicale Lucchese, Associazione Scarlatti in Naples, I Concerti del Quirinale in Rome, Stradivari Festival in Cremona, Ravenna Festival and Settimane Musicali in Stresa.

The quartet is regularly invited to perform in Germany, Switzerland, England, France, Spain, Canada, United States, South Korea and China.

Its performances have been broadcasted on several radio stations such as Venice Classic Radio, Radio Clásica, RSI and Radio 3.

In 2013 and 2017 it was quartet in residence at Festival Ticino Musica in Lugano.

In July 2019 a new album with works of Puccini, Boccherini, Verdi and Respighi was released by the lebel “Warner Classics”.

Booklet for Colasanti: String Quartets