Two world premieres are coming up for Philippe Hersant in April. On April 2, 2015 Ensemble Les Temps Modernes and Yael Raanan Vandor (contralto) will perform his Chants séfarades in Le Toboggan. Philippe Hersant’s fourth string quartet Quatuor à cordes n° 4. Der gestirnte Himmel (The Starry Sky) will be played by Cypress String Quartet in San Francisco on April 10, 2015 for the first time.

Quatuor à cordes n° 4. Der gestirnte Himmel (The Starry Sky)
“My Quatuor n°4 (as indeed like the previous quartet), was commissioned by my friends of the Cypress String Quartet. Each year, these musicians perform a new programme which they have called “Call & Response” (Appel et Réponse) in San Francisco. The principle is simple: they ask a composer to write a piece in response to classic string quartet repertoire. This year they have chosen the theme ‘night’ and suggested that I write a piece  responding to the Beethoven’s Quartet opus 59 n°2, most specifically to his slow movement – conceived, if we believe Czerny, as “a meditation on the harmony of the realms under the starry sky in the silence of the night”.

Most elements that constitute my Quatuor à cordes n°4 are borrowed from Beethoven. They are often only short snippets - rhythmic or harmonic and sometimes thematic (the “Russian theme” of the scherzo of this same quartet is also cited). These elements are reworked, presented in a new way, subject to numerous developments, to constant metamorphosis, but they are sprinkled throughout the entire work – sometimes obviously and sometimes discretely…

The piece is dedicated to the Cypress String Quartet.”
Philippe Hersant


Chants séfarades
“During my stay as Casa Velasquez in Madrid, I discovered with astonishment the patrimony of Spanish music – medieval and renaissance music, traditional music, and ever since, I have held a very particular affection for Judeo-Spanish songs. Hunted in the peninsula by the decree of Alhambra in 1492, the Spanish Jews were dispersed throughout the Mediterranean basin, from the Maghreb to Greece, and from Italy to Anatolia Their songs, exposed to the influences of the countries crossed and the host lands, formed a mosaic, where the sacred coexists with the secular, and the East with the West.

And thus I wanted to inspire myself by some of these historical songs of exile. My Duo Sephardim, for viola and bassoon constituted a first approach. In this cycle, larger in size and duration, I have regrouped the five most famous Sephardic songs: Porque llorax, (originating from Sarajevo), Y una madre (Tetouan), El Rey que tanto madruga (Sofai), El Rey de Francia (Izmir) and Una matica de ruda (Sofia). I have orchestrated them, or re-written them, a little in the spirit of the Folk Songs by Luciano Berio. A flute, a clarinet, a violin, a cello and a piano are all brought together around a contralto voice.

This oeuvre was commissioned by, and dedicated to, Ensemble Les Temps modernes.”
Philippe Hersant