Pianist and composer Jean-Frédéric Neuburger will have his first string quartet premiered on July 20th in Abbaye de Valloires in northern France. Written for the four outstanding performers of the newly formed Quatuor Strada (Pierre Fouchenneret and Sullimann Altmayer, violins, Lise Berthaud, viola, François Salque, cello) the new work will be performed on a program with two masterpieces from Beethoven.

Neuberger says: “I wanted to compose a powerful, dynamic, and often joyful music. Tempi are often very fast and sometime, the music looks like a true whirlwind. This work has been written in five parts, each of them shorter than the previous one. All the parts are tied and form a great movement in this way.

The first part, very fast, presents a struggle between silence and sound with some fortissimo strings quadruples explosions that are moving closer to form a swirling appearance. The second part is built on ascending progressions of formal chords. The viola, central voice of the quartet, stands out by a solo more and more over-playful. The third part is like an imaginary struggle and leads to the fourth part, “Alla Marcia” (tribute to Beethoven's Ninth Symphony!) almost entirely written in pizzicati, a sort of thrilled dance. The fifth part offers a summary of elements already listened, changed, before a victorious end.”