Dessner / Goldmund Quartet - Travel Diaries [CD]

A decade in the same formation - unfortunately, fewer and fewer ensembles manage that. But the Goldmund Quartet is one of them and their new album "Travel Diaries" shows which personalities of today's music scene have influenced them and with whom they have worked over the last ten years. Ten years is a long time. As a musician, you get to know many composers during this time, interpret their works, or even work on these together with them. The Goldmund Quartet has done this with a number of well-known composers: Fazil Say, Dobrinka Tabakova or Wolfgang Rihm. They are all well-known names in contemporary music culture with whom the ensemble interpreted, rearranged or even reinvented works. The close collaboration with some of these composers played a big part in this: "While we're working on the music we can sense how the work evokes memories and emotions in Fazil, which in turn gives new impetus to our interpretation. For instance, in the third movement he describes a cantilena in unison between the first violin and the viola as a fateful flirtation that is disturbed by the second violin using Bartok pizzicati and loud, accentuated notes emulating a hysterical voice of jealousy. The psychological essence of the work can, up to a point, be figuratively transferred to the music-making and interaction between the members of a string quartet. We strive among ourselves in order to achieve the expression of profound emotions. We go through our ups and downs too."