Ragazze Quartet plays both classical and modern string quartet repertoire: inspired and on the highest level. With attractive but unconventional programmes the quartet has come to be one of the most fresh and leading voices in the world of classical music.
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About this programme
Lamento
In collaboration with
About this programme
In collaboration with
TUE 30 JAN, 5:00 pm
SQBA, Muziekgebouw / Amsterdam / NL
TUE 20 FEB, 8:15 pm
St. Aegtenkapel / Amersfoort / NL
SUN 25 FEB, 3:00 pm
ECI Cultuurfabriek / Roermond / NL
SAT 02 MAR, 4:00 pm
Kulturhuset Najaden / Halmstad / SE
SUN 03 MAR
Ronneby / Blekinge / SE
WED 06 MAR, 7:00 pm
Landskrona Teater / Landskrona / SE
FRI 08 MAR, 6:00 pm
Lokstallarna / Karlshamn / SE
"The biggest disappointment of life is not death itself, it’s what we let die inside of us." - Jeffrey Klein

All human beings face death sometime in their lives. Grief is a necessary process of adjusting to continuing life without the significant someone. Each of us has our own unique way to grieve, but there are some emotions and feelings that are shared during the process of grief, even throughout the centuries.

 

In Lamento Ragazze dwells on the varied ways in which human beings commemorate their deceased with music. From Gesualdo (late-Renaissance) via the famous Dido’s Lament by Purcell (Baroque), to Romanticism in Mendelssohn’s String Quartet Op.80. This quartet is dedicated to his sister Fanny who passed away suddenly, and is writen only two months before his own death.

 

These works will be combined with Elegy in Me, a commission to Seung-Won Oh, whose affinity with the traditional Korean music and customs resonates within her contemporary musical idiom and performance practice. The piece they creates an opening for new sounds and approaches to influence the genre of the string quartet, originally rooted in western tradition.

 

Lamento will premiere at the String Quartet Biennale Amsterdam in January 2024 and tour consecutively.

Repertoire
Gesualdo
Mercè! grido piangendo
Mendelssohn
String Quartet no.6 in f minor Op.80
- break -
Purcell
Dido’s Lament
Seung-Won Oh
Elegy in Me
Seung-Won Oh
Photo: Alex Schröder


Born in South Korea, Seung-Won Oh is an acclaimed composer whose music has been performed throughout Europe, North America and Asia, transcending traditional boundaries. As critic Mirjam Zegers writes: "Oh connects East and West, lively movement and silence, pure sound and ritual theater, layered structures and transparency."


As one of the winners of the distinguished Guggenheim Fellowship Award, the Rockefeller Foundation at the Bellagio Center, the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship through the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Barlow Endowment, Oh is celebrated both in her home country and abroad: she received both the first prize and the audience prize at the 3rd Seoul International Competition for Composers, the third prize at the Lutoslawski Award in Poland, and the 2010 Toonzetters Prize for the best Dutch contemporary composition of the year.


With YeonDo-Bosch Requiem, she won the 2022 Kees van Baaren Prize, a prestigious award given to important orchestral or musical theater works every 7 years.