Ciompi Quartet: Trois Modernes

Program includes Debussy: String Quartet in G Minor, Op. 10; Toru Takemitsu: String Quartet "Landscape" (1960); Stravinsky: Concertino for String Quartet (1920). For its inaugural concert of the 2019/20 season, the Ciompi Quartet presents a program of three works linked aesthetically to French modernism. Debussy's only string quartet, an early tour de force, is rooted in the forms of the classical tradition but subverts melodic expectations. Toru Takemitsu's string quartet "Landscape" is a contemplative work, offering fourteen repetitions of the same theme; the effect is a translucent atmosphere, obscuring the lines between music and silence. Stravinsky's single-movement Concertino closes the concert, a piece-- like Debussy's-- with modern, unconventional melodies used in conventional forms.