Plier-Déplier: Last week end on Mars Quatuor Béla

• 1 1 00:43
• 2 2 03:51
• 3 3 02:59
• 4 4 02:16
• 5 5 01:33
• 6 6 02:33
• 7 7 01:41
• 8 8 02:10
• 9 9 03:24
• 10 10 02:58
• 11 11 01:43
• 12 12 02:40
• 13 13 02:11
• 14 14 03:04
• 15 15 03:47
• 16 16 01:37
• 17 17 02:10
• 18 18 09:18
• 19 19 04:03
• 20 Last Week-End on Mars 07:30
• 21 Découper - petite passacaille 04:20
• Total Runtime 01:06:31

Info zu Plier-Déplier: Last week end on Mars

„Plier-Déplier“ or Folding and Unfolding is a piece whose special characteristic is that it was conceived by two composers. Its form is one of sharing and exchange, the music of one unfolding into the music of the other.

From the outset, a clear trajectory gives structure to the piece – starting with the pizzicati played in the highest possible tessitura of the instruments. The trajectory evolves down to the lowest tone produced by the last cord of the cello which is so slack that is becomes barely audible. This thematic thread developing throughout the piece is deformed, interrupted and fractured by the contrast between two different concepts of musical tempo: one dynamic and one suspended. The former imposes the energy and dynamism that goes with the movements and the second is expressed through the dimensions of the sound itself. Thus the piece takes the form of a permanent alternance between two states, two musics, which while never being superimposed, break the continuity of the thematic thread.

A third voice, consisting of pre-recorded excerpts of the quartet comes as an echo to this dialog bringing reminiscences of music already heard or premonitions of sound to come.

In this weave, made up of folding and unfolding fabric, certain sounds are impossible to achieve with two hands and call for the intervention of another musician. Thus, at the end of the piece, the quartet turns into a duet where the first violinist plays with the viola player on the viola, while the second violinist does the same on the cello. As a consequence the musicians share the space of their instruments just as the authors shared their space of composition.

Plier-Déplier or Folding and Unfolding is a command of the state whose creation has been a Coproduction Grame (Lyon CNCM) – Biennale Musiques en Scène and Césaré (CNCM Reims).

Quatuor Béla:
Frédéric Aurier, violin
Julien Dieudegard, violin
Julian Boutin, alto
Luc Dedreuil, violin cello

Quatuor Béla
Music of Today. Nothing more natural than wanting to play the music of one’s time… Yes, certainly and yet…

The path we have chosen for ourselves is one that hasn’t been traced in advance. The use of a repertoire in perpetual transformation – which questions our cultural reference points with each work – gives us the opportunity for constant inquiry. The four of us having graduated from the Conservatoires of Paris and Lyon, and trained in the now ancient discipline of the String Quartet, it is up to us to make our group of musicians thrive with the same boldness and intensity of those of the past. Surely this has been, for the last two and half centuries, the crucible from which composers have drawn their most experimental and intimate work.

Now, in the spirit of today’s artists, we would like to enrich our work with the influences of other types of music : electro-acoustic, improvisational, current and traditional. Our goal is to rethink stage space, the locations and structuring of concerts, as well as the relationship to the audience. We seek, through artistic encounters, not to stick to our strings, but to gather around us all the sensibilities that make contemporary art diverse. We are passionate about closing the long-standing gap between tradition and modernity.

Founded in 2006, the Quatuor Béla is composed of four young musicians from Lyon, graduates of the Conservatoire (CNSM) : Julien Dieudegard, Frédéric Aurier, Julian Boutin, and Luc Dedreuil.

They were united by their desire both to champion the contemporary repertoire (Ligeti, Crumb, Scelsi, Cage, Saariaho…) and to support all forms of musical creation : mixed media music, improvisation, musical theatre, and commissioned works.

They have performed in notable venues of today’s music scene, including the Musiques En Scène Biennale, Les Musiques Festival in Marseille, the Why Note Festival, the GRAME, Musique Action, and the GMEA, Arsenal de Metz.

Their innate desire for artistic exchange has brought them to work with artists of often disparate horizons : Jean François Vrod, Albert Marcoeur, Anne Bitran, Fantazio, Moriba Koïta. These collaborations have given birth to stage shows, an album, concerts, and projects, including Retour sur le Coissard Balbutant, Travaux Pratiques, Machina Mémorialis, and Impressions d’Afrique.

Convinced that scholarly contemporary expression deserves to play a vital and even unifying role in all music that is alive and new, they participate in events which are deliberately hybrids – at times acting as organizers, along with such companions of the road as Denis Charolles, Fantazio, and Sylvain Lemêtre, in which each performer aims to foster a modern, sincere and sensitive relationship with its audience : La Belle Ouie Festival, Carte Blanche to Fantazio in Calais, les Nuits d’Eté, Festival, La France qui se lève tôt, Carte Blanche to Quatuor Béla in Chambery, Musiques de Rues, Africolor)

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