Simply Quartet

Welcome to the 20th Klarafestival!

Under the title We Are Now, this special anniversary edition pays tribute to the here and now. No one embraces the magic of the moment more fearlessly than festival artist Patricia Kopatchinskaja. Wherever and whatever she plays, this Moldovan violinist and composer sets the stage alight. For her, every concert is a new beginning, a full moment in which anything can happen. Klarafestival 2025 paints a multifaceted portrait of Patricia Kopatchinskaja as a violinist, composer and inspiring presence.

In honour of our 20th anniversary, we are launching a new tradition: for one day, Mont des Arts will be transformed into the Muziekberg /Mont des Musiques. Alongside concerts and performances at various venues, a new ensemble will also see the light. Sound of Brussels Orchestra goes in search of the exceptional sound of our capital.

We live in challenging times, and some of the festival projects reflect on this. At the same time, they demonstrate how much hope can lurk between the notes of a Stabat Mater or a Dies Irae. How music can move and inspire us. For Patricia Kopatchinskaja, music is no abstract matter: ‘Music is there for us to do something with it. Even when it has no concrete message or function, it appeals to us. It wants to be heard. I don't believe in absolute music. Not really.'

Let the celebration begin!

Joost Fonteyne, intendant
Jan Raes, chairman
Chantal Pattyn, network manager

Unity in polyphony 

The string quartet is considered the king of chamber music. What this noble title does not reveal is that it is a highly democratic form of music. All four musicians are equal and allow each other the space to be heard. There is no conductor to decide which direction they take; they decide this together and in dialogue. The cross-over to polyphony leads to a thrilling symbiosis that leaves no one unmoved. Speaking of cross-overs: the young, dynamic Simply Quartet always seeks ways to blend diverse musical worlds in its programmes. ‘From Chinese philosophy comes the idea of a great oneness in which opposites depend on each other and complement each other’, say the musicians. ‘As four different individuals, together we give form to that oneness.’ The music in this programme certainly demonstrates how the combination of diverse worlds results in a stimulating, multi-voiced whole.   

The Simply Quartet open with a work by the British violist and composer Rebecca Clarke (1886-1979). She was the first woman to study composition, with the celebrated Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, at the Royal College of Music in London. On Stanford’s advice, Clarke began to play the viola, because she then ‘would sit at the centre of the sound’ and experience from the inside how compositions work. The viola, often considered a ‘misfit’ among string instruments, held an important position in Clarke’s life. She successfully supported herself as a professional violist in orchestras and chamber music ensembles. Composing remained a sideline – as a woman, Clarke’s work was often ignored. She certainly used her compositions to bring her instrument more to the fore, leaving behind her experience in ‘the middle of the sound’. She is for many violists a leading composer of the instrument’s repertoire.

In the intimate Poem (1926), Clarke writes a beautiful part for viola. Two basic motifs, that provide a rhythmic pulse to the piece, interweave to create a theme that develops little by little while being continually passed between the musicians. The harmonies and muted strings remind one of Claude Debussy’s impressionism. Poem was posthumously published in 2004 – Clarke ceased composing in 1944 and many of her compositions have never been officially published. Only in the 1970s, and largely thanks to the second wave feminist movement, did her oeuvre receive increased consideration. Clarke is today considered one of the greatest composers and violists of her time, a female role model in a classical music world long dominated by men.

Next we hear an exhilarating movement from the first string quartet by Wynton Marsalis (°1961), a prominent guest at this year’s Klarafestival. Born in New Orleans, like Rebecca Clarke the trumpeter combines his role as a musician with composing. While known primarily in the jazz world (he is the winner of numerous Grammys), Marsalis is perfectly at home with classical music. At fourteen, he was soloing with the New Orleans Philharmonic, during a competition which he won playing Haydn’s virtuosic trumpet concerto. Marsalis regularly introduces something ‘classical’ into his compositions, but a cross-over into other styles is never far away: the first string quartet is full of the jazz influences that Marsalis grew up with. New Orleans is not called the birthplace of jazz for nothing.

Marsalis uses his music to address racial discrimination and black emancipation. This was so with his first string quartet in 1995: the work was subtitled ‘At the Octoroon Balls’. ‘Octoroon’ is an offensive term for a person who is of one eighth Black ancestry. In 19th-century New Orleans, balls were organised at which people of colour were allowed the ‘opportunity’ to find a white marriage partner. These balls often turned out to involve the sexual fetishisation of non-whites and forced prostitution. The dance music, which had a European bias, was played by mainly black musicians who introduced their own musical traditions, such as jazz. Marsalis fused these worlds together in his first string quartet. The composition acknowledges the Creole contradictions and compromises that mark a city like New Orleans. The movement played by the Simply Quartet, ‘Creole Contradanzas’, refers to the partner dances at these balls: a swinging blend of European and Black music traditions.

The Simply Quartet end with the String Quartet in G minor by the Norwegian composer Edvard Grieg (1842-1907). Grieg composed it between 1877 and 1878, when he had retreated to a rural area close by Bergen. He hoped that this environment would inspire him to integrate more folkloristic elements into classical music forms such as the string quartet. However, this was not an immediate success and creativity was delayed. Eventually, he was able to combine the two worlds: The string quartet’s main theme was borrowed from one of Grieg’s own songs, Spillemænd. This tells the fairytale story of a minstrel who wishes to learn from a water spirit how to enchant his love with music – to no avail. Grieg introduces the main theme right at the start – in minor, stately and loud, whereby each musician must strike multiple strings simultaneously. The musical material in this turbulent opening returns throughout the four movements in a variety of guises.  

The striking of multiple strings – ‘double stopping’ – creates the impression that not only four musicians are playing, but a large string orchestra. The rich sonority creates an expansiveness that makes one yearn for the Norwegian wilderness. It also makes the work technically challenging to perform. Grieg’s publisher at first refused it: the music’s orchestration was unusually dense for string quartet; a revised version for a larger line-up seemed to be the only solution. Despite the criticism, the string quartet’s premiere was a triumph. Grieg’s composition was seen as a key work between romanticism and impressionism – Claude Debussy revived the main theme in his own, impressionist string quartet. No wonder the Simply Quartet wish to end their journey full of multiperspectivity with such a connective composition.

Maarten Boussery

Translation: Patrick Goddard

Simply Quartet

Based on the idea that opposites complement each other, the young Simply Quartet combines simplicity and complexity, classical and modern, and draws inspiration from the sound worlds of different cultures. The quartet was founded in Shanghai and developed further in Madrid and Vienna. It won first prizes at the International Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition (2017), the Franz Schubert and Modern Music Competition (2018), the Carl Nielsen International Chamber Music Competition (2019) and Quatuors à Bordeaux (2019). Since then, Simply Quartet has performed on the stages of Wigmore Hall, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Tonhalle Zürich, Konzerthaus Berlin and Beethovenfest Bonn, and many more.