Commission to Gérard Pesson

Gérard Pesson, commissioned by Cutting Edge Kultur, is composing a new work for the Hanoverian piano quartet Flex Ensemble, which is supported by the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation. 30 years after his first piano quartet Mes béatitudes, the new work will be a symmetrical version of it, using material from his great inspiration, Fauré’s op. 45. Fauré is an inspiring composer for both Pesson and Flex, bridging important stylistic developments in his career with his two piano quartets. Pesson’s earlier piano quartet Mes béatitudes was written in 1994/95, at a time when Pesson was establishing himself as an important new voice on the European contemporary music scene, just as Fauré’s Quartet op. 15 is the work of a young composer taking his place as an important voice of his generation. For Pesson, returning to the piano quartet 30 years after Béatitudes raises interesting questions about how he and his music have changed in the intervening period, something that can also be said of Fauré’s second piano quartet (which belongs firmly to his middle period style). The juxtaposition of these two pairs of works will be an interesting study of a composer’s stylistic changes over the course of his career.

As 2024 marks the 100th anniversary of Fauré’s death, the Flex Ensemble combines his two piano quartets with the two piano quartets by Pesson. This program will be an interesting study of transitions: the change in compositional language for piano quartet as well as the stylistic changes in two French composers from the late 19th and early 21st century, Pesson’s highly personal approach to reinterpreting the works of romantic composers and last but not least the Flex Ensemble’s own development: the musicians were students when they performed Mes béatitudes for the first time and they felt almost overwhelmed by the contemporary musical language. In the meantime, the ensemble has also matured to the point where it can initiate the creation of important new works for the piano quartet genre.

Further information:
flexensemble.com

Dates

December 14, 2024
Künstlerhaus, Hanover

December 15, 2024
FORUM of the Lüneburg Music School