Schubert Octuor Merlin Passage éclair

Description

Founded in 2013 at the initiative of the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, La Belle Saison brings together several prestigious concert venues to program chamber music concerts. It also produces recordings. Initiated by a collective of chamber music friends, this program has matured over the course of one of its residencies. Inspired by the unprecedented nomenclature of Beethoven's Septet op.20, Schubert's Octet D803 is a vast work with symphonic dimensions. It precedes by only a year the Ninth Symphony known as the "Great," the composer's last major orchestral work. Raphaël Merlin, a member of the Quatuor Ébène, conductor, and composer, drew inspiration from this octet to write Passage Éclair: "In Schubert, 3 wind instruments respond to 5 strings, which aligns with the laws of acoustics and dynamics, but still gives a relatively dark color to the whole. Thus, the numbers 3, 5, and 8 evoke the Fibonacci sequence; like the golden proportions, it underpins a great number of works from the past and today... We engage in musical time in reference to the time of human life on earth and the concept of the acceleration of history..."