On Friday October 15 at 7 :30 pm, the Molinari Quartet will pay tribute to the late R. Murray Schafer at the Montreal Conservatory. The musicians will perform 4 of the 5 string quartets Schafer wrote for the Molinari.
You will hear the incredible Quartet no.7 with soprano obligato, with the wonderful soprano Aline Kutan. With full staging, quadraphonic sound, movement of the musicians throughout the hall, this quartet shatters the conventional string quartet in all means. Coloured shirts and sculptures by Guido Molinari make a special setting for this unique and beautiful music.

Winter Birds, Schafer’s 10th quartet depicts the sounds of the birds and wolves that Schafer heard from his farmhouse in Ontario in the winter of 2005. The 12th Quartet was commissioned thanks to the generosity of Phyllis Lambert and is a work of great lyricism and beauty and, as always with Schafer’s music, it also has a strong rhythmic vitality. The very short Quartet no.13, subtitled Alzheimer’s Masterpiece is Schafer’s last work and was written just after he received his diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.

The Molinari Quartet will also play a 10 minute excerpt of Schafer’s Labyrinth which combines musicians in live performance of the quartets with original motion picture images that will be projected on a large screen. The film is make and produced by Barbara Willis-Sweete.

This concert is presented before a public and is also live-streamed.
The links to the tickets will be available soon.

East European music is often influenced by regional folk music. Bartók and Janáček’s string quartets are good examples of this folk influence with their dancing momentum.

The musicians will also perfom Italian composer Giacinto Scelsi’s String Trio.

Ce concert propose les quatre oeuvres gagnantes du 8e Concours international de composition du Quatuor Molinari. Sélectionnées parmi les 115 partitions reçues de 33 pays, les oeuvres inédites seront créées lors de ce concert.

Oboist Vincent Boilard of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, joins the Molinari Quartet for a concert of quintets for oboe and string quartet. The four works to be heard are by Canadian composers.

This concert is part of the series « Ensembles en résidence » of the Montreal Conservatory of Music.

The Molinari Quartet is very proud to present the world premiere of Le grand rétro, the first string quartet by its violinist Antoine Bareil. Inspired by his numerous musical experiences and his prolific imagination, Bareil’s Le grand rétro outlines a musical path throughout different styles. The Molinari Quartet will also premiere the first string quartet by Canadian composer Christopher Goddard, who is one of the winners of the 2018 Graham Sommer composition competition.

To close the concert, you will hear the very elaborate string quartet no. 14 by Dimitri Shostkovich.