Repertoire
Cosmos Quartet
Octavi Rumbau: String Quartet No. 1 (2020) 15′ – World premiere, commissioned by L’Auditori and the Barcelona String Quartet Biennale
Cuarteto Casals + Benjamin Alard
J. S. Bach: Die Kunst der Fuge (The Art of Fugue), BWV 1080 (1738-42)
Artists
Cuarteto Casals
Benjamin Alard, harpsichord
Cosmos Quartet
Program
The imposing art of Bach’s fugue played with the historical bows of the Cuarteto Casals and the harpsichord of Benjamin Alard.The last concert in the Barcelona Quartet Biennale is dedicated to the greatest work in counterpoint, The Art of Fugue by J. S. Bach was published in 1751, a year after the composer’s death. Throughout fourteen fugues – the last one unfinished – and four canons, Bach rigorously deploys a wide variety of counterpoint techniques. For this reason, it is thought that Bach created The Art of Fugue with a pedagogical forethought; that is, to condense and exemplify the theory of counterpoint that he had been developing in previous compositions. The main theme of the work is simple, both melodic and rhythmic, and Bach repeats and transforms it with astonishing skill.
Barcelona’s Octavi Rumbau finally premieres his first string quartet, which is commissioned by L’Auditori and the Barcelona Quartet Biennale.
