Nyman premieres

10th November 2011

On November 20, The Smith Quartet will perform the premiere of String Quartet No 5 by Michael Nyman as part of the Festival Automne en Normandie in Bernay, Église abbatiale Notre-Dame. The string quartet, commissioned by the festival, forms part of a concert including Nyman’s String Quartet No 2 and String Quartet No 3 alongside Louis Andriessen Miserere.

For more information, please visit the festival website.


In October, Le Cadran, Evereu, France was the setting for the world première of Nyman's new soundtrack to Sergei Eisenstein's Battleship Potemkin, perhaps the most famous propaganda film ever made. Released in 1925, it tells the story of the sailors of the eponymous ship that rebelled against their Tsarist superiors. It has featured in numerous lists of the best ever films, and contains many iconic scenes that have influenced generations of film-makers.

Eisenstein specifically called for the music to be rewritten regularly to be suitable to each new generation, and Nyman has continued his recent interest in writing for old silent films, including The Sixth Part of the World and Many With A Movie Camera.