OSLO, Skippergt. 22
26 May
20.30 // 8.30 pm
Georg Friedrich Haas, String Quartet No. 2 (1998)
Mauro Lanza, The 1987 Max Headroom broadcast incident (2017)
The Cikada String Quartet is internationally recognized for its work on expanding the string quartet’s possibilities. Their set in Skippergata provides two extremely contrasting works: the spectral subtlety and organicism of Georg Friedrich Haas’s 2nd string quartet and the concrete and electric noisiness of Mauro Lanza’s The 1987 Max Headroom Broadcast Incident.
Austrian composer Georg Friedrich Haas (b. 1953) make use of microtonality in most of his works and is often mentioned as a leading exponent of spectral music. String Quartet No. 2 from 1998 is already a classic, and as such a textbook introduction to Haas’s take on microtonality. If you ever wondered what spectral music is about, this piece will explain it better than any text. «Tradition shines through again and again» writes Haas about his own work, «but it appears as something lost, distant, clouded».
Italian composer Mauro Lanza (b. 1975) studied piano in Venice and computer music at IRCAM. Infused with irony, his compositions attempt to intimately merge classical instruments with other less conventional sound sources. The 1987 Max Headroom Broadcast Incident is inspired by a television signal hijacking that occurred in Chicago by a person wearing a Max Headroom mask. The piece features a string quartet “enhanced” with electronics and preparations, where the digital processing of the instruments is largely inspired by the same modulation techniques that still are used for radio and television transmission. The piece is as such an homage to obsolete technologies and to the media-dominated future that the sci-fi of the 80s foretold. The piece is dedicated to the memory of Fausto Romitelli.
The Cikada String Quartet has gained a reputation far beyond the boundaries of Scandinavia as a special ensemble for contemporary music, as well as for projects at the nexus of composition and improvisation. Its repertoire includes works for electrically amplified string quartet, as well as works which combine acoustic string sound and live electronics. The quartet’s core repertoire includes major works from the second half of the 20th century by composers such as Kaija Saariaho, Rolf Wallin, Luigi Nono, Iannis Xenakis, Toshio Hosokawa and James Dillon. Musicians: Karin Hellqvist (violin), Odd Hannisdal (violin), Bendik Foss (viola), Johannes Martens (cello).