— Alastair Macaulay, The New York Times
Kaija Saariaho, Pam Tanowitz, and Brice Marden’s ravishing union of dance, music, painting, and T. S. Eliot’s poetry is a vast and thrilling performance that has gained admiration from audiences at Bard College, in London, and in Los Angeles. The Fisher Center at Bard now offers audiences around the world the chance to experience Four Quartets from home.
Saariaho’s scoring includes Fall, …de la Terre, Cloud Trio, and Vent nocturne. After its 2018 premiere, The New York Times wrote, “A superb new score by the illustrious Kaija Saariaho is also played, sometimes between stanzas, sometimes underneath the words, by the four musicians of The Knights…Varied effects of vibrato, portamento and pizzicato bring different shades of intensity, atmosphere, eloquence: Even a single austere cello line down a few tones can become fraught with significance.”
Watch the 2018 World Premiere
streaming October 31 and November 1, 2020
tickets
Trailer
‘There the Dance Is’
Live-stream event October 30 2020 at 7:00 pm EDT
The premiere of There the Dance Is, a short film on the experience of making and performing Four Quartets, is rare opportunity to experience this stunning and mysterious performance — from the other side of the curtain. The All-Access Special Event on October 30 includes:
• Pam Tanowitz and Alastair Macaulay live-streamed conversation
• There the Dance Is screening
• Four Quartets screening advance access
• Four Quartets audiobook featuring Kathleen Chalfant
All-access tickets
Read
pre-premiere article on WiseMusicClassical.com
Upcoming productions for Saariaho
A new production of Only the Sound Remains, her acclaimed Noh-inspired chamber opera, is directed by Aleksi Barrière and premieres at Tokyo Bunka Kaikan and the Palau de la Música this season. Reconnaissance is a new choral work, set to text by Barrière, and premiering as part of Saariaho residencies at the Palau and November Music. Debuting in February 2021 is a new work for Ensemble Connect, commissioned by Carnegie Hall. In her native Finland, Saariaho collaborates with visual artist Raija Malka on an installation for Helsinki’s Amos Rex museum, which opens at season’s end. The exhibition title, Blick (Gaze), is a reference to visual artist Wassily Kandinsky’s poem from 1912 that is included in the composer’s soundscape.
