Anna Clyne Composes New Work for String Quartet and Orchestra
Quarter Days, a new work by Anna Clyne, receives its world premiere on October 22 with the Euclid Quartet and South Bend Symphony Orchestra, led by Alastair Willis.
Anna Clyne’s Quarter Days, a new work written for string quartet and orchestra, will be unveiled on October 22 with the Euclid Quartet, South Bend Symphony Orchestra, and Alastair Willis. Later this season, Quarter Days will be performed by the Dali Quartet, Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, and Stuart Malina (Feb 10-11), with further performances to be announced in future seasons.
Inspiration for the work came from the T.S. Eliot poem “Burnt Norton,” the first of his Four Quartets. Clyne comments: “Quarter Days is a reflection on the passing of time—both within a minute, a day, through the seasons and within a lifetime.” The piece is split into four movements, based on the solstices and equinoxes that divide the year: I. Autumn Equinox, II. Winter Solstice, III. Spring Equinox, IV. Summer Solstice.
Clyne explains her compositional process:
“My approach to writing this music was to firstly write the string quartet, and then to add the orchestra to augment the string quartet—creating a hyper-quartet, and at times an echo chamber. Divided into four movements, thematic material is threaded between them. Sometimes the quartet sings as one voice, and at other times they fragment into four individual lines, spun out through the orchestra.”
In addition to Quarter Days, several of Clyne’s new concertos see major premieres worldwide in the 2023-2024 season. Time and Tides receives its world premiere (Sep 8) with violin soloist Pekka Kuusisto, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, and the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, where Clyne serves as composer-in-residence.
Clyne also serves as artist-in-residence with Symphony Orchestra of Castilla y León this season, where the orchestra will give the Spanish premieres of Glasslands (Nov 2-3) and Weathered (Feb 23-24), featuring saxophone soloist Jess Gillam and clarinet soloist Martin Fröst, respectively. Clyne’s new piano concerto ATLAS for soloist Jeremy Denk receives its world premiere with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Fabio Luisi (Feb 28-30).
> Further information on Work: Quarter Days
Photo: Christina Kernohan
