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Pierre Jalbert’s String Quartet No. 5 in German Premiere

Apr. 27, 2012

Pierre Jalbert’s String Quartet No. 5 in German Premiere

On May 16 the Emerson String Quartet presents the German premiere of Pierre Jalbert’s String Quartet No. 5 at Musik im Riesen 2012. Commissioned by the Emerson String Quartet, the 27-minute piece premiered in April, 2011 at Rice University as part of the Houston Friends of Chamber Music series.

Jalbert's String Quartet No. 5 continues the composer's interest in mining the riches of French Canadian folk song.  In this work the tune “Les Pelerins” features prominently.  Jalbert explains:

My family has been in the States for a long while now, though I do still have relatives in Quebec. But I'm American through and through. I didn't grow up with this tune, but I've recently become interested in incorporating folk song into my music, and this tune acts as a theme in the third movement for a set of variations that become more and more animated.

With the Emerson Quartet, I've known their playing for years. Knowing them and their sound has always helped me to envision [this] piece. Rather than starting with a blank slate, I had a conception of what the players could do and that helped to generate material…Beginning a new piece is always the most difficult. It's those first few ideas that you decide to use that will ultimately shape the piece...I like to think of it as building a house, creating the architecture for the piece and the initial materials, creating a blueprint and seeing how everything fits and trying to keep the idea of the whole piece in mind throughout the process and not just the individual moments.

To learn more about the concert, click here.

Learn more about Pierre Jalbert at www.pierrejalbert.com or www.schott-music.com.

Pierre Jalbert
String Quartet No. 5 (2010)
27’

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