Chetham's School of Music

An Exploration of Music from late the 20th Century

Students from two of Europe’s leading Music Schools explore music from the ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s alongside Octets by a Norwegian Student Composer and Italian Composer Simone Fontanelli, written especially for this concert.

The programme consists of:
The beautiful and expressionistic Nordheim String Quartet of 1956; reflecting Life, Death, love and Nature.
Lutoslawski’s ground breaking Quartet 1964, consisting of 4 interdependent and semi-independent ‘Mobiles’ is about creating an extraordinary musical drama through communication and freedom.
Kurtag’s String Quartet, Homage to Andras Mihaly, is a series of 12 Miniatures, corresponding to the 12 notes of the chromatic scale. These are fascinating, intense and concise.
Phillip Glass’ 3rd String Quartet takes us into the world of minimalism and is based on his music for the film ‘Mishima’. This is deeply evocative music.
All 16 musicians will take part in a performance of John Cage’s Variations III, which they will have been creating from the ground-breaking ideas of a work constructed from instructions, chance and exploration.
Two World Premieres – Octets by Simone Fontanelli, a friend of Kurtag and young Norwegian Composer – Hjalmar Bjerner