Projects
Astrid Lindgren. Mischief, it just happens
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insight
Two years of intensive research and preparatory work have gone into insight, the visionary multimedia project by the renowned delian : : quartet in collaboration with the video artists of Piedra Muda LAB, created by Marc Molinos and Alberto De Gobbi.
The result: a breathtaking format that makes the multifaceted and moving music of Bach’s “The Art of Fugue” structurally visible in real time and based on scientific principles.
The musical-theoretical foundation of insight is the comprehensive analysis of Bach’s „Opus summum“ as well as the graphical algorithmization of the thematic material by the musicologist and composer Andrea Damiano Cotti. All elements of the video installation, its transformations, and choreographies are inspired by this.
Put simply, the form of the installation’s “protagonists” is based on the calculated graphical algorithms of the thematic variations; the numerical analysis of the individual contrapuncti determines the “plot” of the artistically interpreted video sequences.
Rilke. To feel how the birds fly
The literary and musical journeys of our delian::quartett have long enjoyed an outstanding reputation beyond the borders of the German-speaking world. Thanks to their elaborately crafted, “fortunate combination of music and words” (Fuldaer Zeitung), they have become true audience favorites.
The backdrop for Rilke. Feeling How the Birds Fly is Rainer Maria Rilke’s only novel, „The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge“. In it, the great poet captures in poetic and evocative language what concerns each and every one of us: the search for identity and meaning, and the grappling with fate and life, death and illness, fear and despair, love and loneliness, language and reality, humanity and God.
Thanks to the episodic diary form of this “prose book,” we can also take the music as our conceptual starting point here: The individual texts fit into the worlds spanned by the musical works of our Rilke program.
This gives the mosaic of words a dramaturgical coherence and an unmistakable character. The first part of the concert revolves brightly around Mozart’s revolutionary “Dissonance Quartet.” We contrast this with the second half, which is more fractured and darker (Shostakovich dedicated his Seventh String Quartet to the memory of his deceased first wife), and finally let the evening draw to a close with Barber’s famous Adagio.
Our delian::quartett is delighted to have secured Jens Harzer, recipient of the Iffland Ring and “a singular figure in German theater with an unmistakable voice” (Die Zeit), for this extraordinary project in honor of the Rilke Year 2026 and beyond.
Parallels
Parallels is the name of our delian::quartet’s innovative and thought-provoking concert format, in which classical music and jazz come together. Not as a pleasing “crossover smoothie,” but as a dialogue between two worlds in their purest form. The two blend together with unexpected seamlessness—an extraordinary journey for the listener…
The starting point for our concept is Haydn’s “The Seven Last Words of Our Savior on the Cross.” According to tradition, this unique work was premiered with spoken reflections on each of the seven biblical words preceding the corresponding music. And even today, “The Seven Last Words” are often accompanied by meditative readings between the musical movements.
What if our delian::quartet were to forgo speech and reverse the traditional order? What if we were to remove this great, ancient composition from its ecclesiastical Passion context and let new, youthful music meditate on Haydn’s wordless, moving musical discourse? The idea of bringing the past into dialogue with that one, personal moment of the concert fascinated us immediately.
Of course, our project stands or falls with the person who is to improvise over Haydn’s masterpiece. Since that work — apart from the final “earthquake” — consists exclusively of slow movements of varying character, the reflections on the “Seven Last Words” have a particular influence on the dramaturgy of a concert.
Having secured jazz pianist Julia Hülsmann—one of the greats and a poet of jazz—for Parallels has proved to be a stroke of luck. The free-form nature of our boundary-crossing project is in the best of hands…
Parallels is unique, enlightening, and moving. We recommend it as a lasting experience lasting 85 to 90 minutes, preferably without an intermission.
Shakespeare. Encounters
With Shakespeare. Encounters, conceived as a commissioned project for the 2023 Shakespeare Festival, we are breaking new ground: for the first time, our delian::quartet began the conceptual work by starting with the music. In this way, we gave our journey through the universe of the brilliant Elizabethan poet William Shakespeare a dramaturgical coherence despite the diverse literary sources.
Two great string quartets of almost pictorial intensity guide us through our extraordinary format and serve as an impressive stage for Shakespeare’s art. Surprisingly harmoniously, Dmitri Shostakovich’s Eighth String Quartet—composed so much time later—blends into the texts. And even Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy has an unexpected impact with our delian::quartett. His revolutionary Sixth String Quartet leaves every “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in the dust. Fateful and deeply emotional, this last completed work by the composer was written under the shadow of the death of his beloved sister Fanny.
Brecht. Pleasures
Having a great artist like Angela Winkler perform alongside our delian::quartet practically obliges us to make the most of all the facets this collaboration has to offer. And so our impressive Brecht project will feature both recitation segments and Angela Winkler’s vocal artistry, entirely in the tradition of Lotte Lenya. A moving example of this can be heard at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_SKgKw6Rg0…a key focus is the selection of Brecht’s texts, which dramaturgically link the musical sections and whose timeless relevance will move the audience.
In the first part of the program, Brecht’s texts serve as a counterpoint to Shostakovich’s deeply moving and harrowing Fourth String Quartet. Composed in 1948, it was inspired by the anti-Semitism of the Stalin era and the accusations leveled against the composer of “formalistic degeneration and anti-democratic tendencies.” This juxtaposition is followed by an interweaving of Brecht’s words with songs by Weill, Eisler, and Bruinier. All of the song lyrics were also penned by Brecht; the music was arranged specifically for our delian::quartett.
Soulful dialogues emerge between light and darkness, wit and bitterness, disillusionment and tenderness.
