Chris Swithinbank

A Talk About Hel­mut Lachen­mann’s Gran Torso

For those of you in Man­ches­ter, I am giv­ing a talk with the won­der­ful Quatuor Danel this Thurs­day on Lachen­mann’s first string quar­tet, Gran Torso. The talk runs from 14:30 to 16:00 at the Uni­ver­sity of Man­ches­ter (map), but is pre­ceded at 13:10 by a free lunchtime con­cert fea­tur­ing Beethoven’s String Quar­tet in F major, Op. 18 No. 1, and the UK première of Pierre Bartholomée’s quar­tet Envol et Mort d’un Pa­pil­lon. I will cover sound, struc­ture and his­tor­i­cal con­text as much as pos­si­ble in the time avail­able, as well as as briefly touch­ing on the two later quar­tets, ‘Reigen seliger Geis­ter’ and ‘Grido’.

The Danels are per­form­ing all three Lachen­mann quar­tets in the com­ing months. Gran Torso is Fri­day night at 19:30 along­side Bartók 3 and Beethoven “Harp”. It is an in­cred­i­ble work, not to be missed.

List­ings: Face­book / Venue